The NGO stresses that “health personnel must be allowed unhindered access to patients”
July 4 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has denounced on Tuesday the denial of medical access in the West Bank city of Jenin (north) by the Israeli Army in the framework of the operation launched on Monday in the place, which has left so far ten Palestinians have been killed and close to a hundred wounded.
“The raids in Jenin are becoming more frequent and their intensity seems to be reaching new heights. We have treated several patients with gunshot wounds to the head and we have received 55 wounded,” said Jovana, the coordinator of MSF operations in Jenin. Arsenijevic.
“We have been working for more than 15 hours and patients continue to arrive. This is a military operation of unprecedented duration, and yet there are still victims who cannot be reached. Medical personnel must be allowed unimpeded access to patients,” he added.
MSF medical teams have so far treated 55 wounded as part of the operation, the largest carried out in the West Bank since the end of the Second Intifada in 2002. The offensive has also caused damage to health structures, while several Tear gas canisters hit the courtyard of the Jalil Suleiman hospital, where NGO staff work.
MSF has highlighted that military bulldozers have destroyed roads leading to the Jenin refugee camp, making it difficult for ambulances to move and causing emergency and medical workers to travel on foot amid active hostilities.
He has also stated that all the roads leading to the camp have remained blocked throughout the duration of the military operation, despite the fact that there are patients “who need care” inside the refugee camp.
“The raids on the Jenin camp have started to follow a familiar pattern: ambulances have been rammed by armored vehicles and patients and medical personnel have been systematically denied entry and exit from the camp,” Arsenijevic explained.
“However, the use of attack helicopters and drones in such a densely populated area represents a marked increase in intensity and is outrageous,” he denounced. “What we see is that the hospital where we are treating patients has been hit by tear gas canisters. We must respect the medical structures, the ambulances and the patients,” he concluded.
Increased tensions in recent months have resulted in the deaths of more than 185 Palestinians and 25 Israelis, amid fears of a widespread outbreak of violence. Tensions have spiked especially since June 19, when an Israeli army raid in Jenin left seven Palestinians dead — including two minors — and more than 90 wounded. Just a day later, four Israelis were killed in an attack near the Eli settlement.
In this context, hundreds of settlers carried out attacks against West Bank towns, events that resulted in the death of a Palestinian, while the Israeli Army killed three Palestinians –members of Islamic Jihad and the armed wing of Al Fatah– in a drone strike near Jenin.
