Red Cross Orders Gaza Restrictions

[tekisui]

Source: International Herald Tribune

JERUSALEM: One day after the United Nations declared a suspension of aid operations in Gaza because one of its drivers was killed, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday that it was temporarily restricting its relief efforts outside Gaza City in response to what it claimed was Israeli small arms fire on one of its trucks.

As the Gaza war entered its 14th day unchecked, the Israeli military said its forces attacked more than 50 targets in Gaza overnight despite a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for "an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire" that would lead to the "full withdrawal" of Israeli forces from Gaza, the passage of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and an end to the trafficking of arms and ammunition into the territory.

Israeli warplanes attacked rock-launching sites and missile-manufacturing facilities, the military said. One Israeli airstrike destroyed a five-story building, killing at least seven people, Hamas security officials told The Associated Press.

The developments came as international aid groups lashed out at Israel, saying that access to civilians in need is poor, relief workers are being hurt and killed, and Israel is woefully neglecting its obligations to Palestinians who are trapped, some among rotting corpses in a nightmarish landscape of deprivation.

The latest accusation came on Friday when Anne-Sophie Bonefeld, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Jerusalem, said a truck with Red Cross markings came under fire south of Gaza City on Thursday as it led a convoy of 13 Palestinian ambulances carrying wounded people to Egypt for treatment. The convoy was forced to turn back, she said.

In a telephone interview, Bonefeld said the convoy's movements were being closely coordinated with the Israeli authorities when it came under fire. As the vehicles traveled south, "several bullets" struck the lead truck's windscreen, one close to the head of the Palestinian driver. She said the restriction of Red Cross activities applied only outside Gaza City and would last for a day. "What we are looking for is to have our safety guaranteed," she said.

An Israeli military spokesman declined immediate comment on the Red Cross statement, but said Israel sought to cooperate with international relief agencies.

more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/09/africa/09mideast-cnd10h30.php

[tekisui]

1. It seems to me Israel wants anyone with foreign eyes out of there.

No journalists allowed, they have now attacked and ran off or limited the UN and the ICRC. Shameful.


more from the article:

Antoine Grand, head of Red Cross operations in Gaza, said his group's workers came under Israeli fire on Thursday. He said a convoy of two trucks, one clearly marked as Red Cross and the other from the Ministry of Health, was taking medical equipment to the southern city of Khan Yunis, followed by 13 ambulances heading to the Egyptian border.

He said the convoy's movement was "fully coordinated with Israel. I did it myself." And it was during the three-hour lull, at 3:30 p.m., he said, when they stopped in front of the checkpoint that the Red Cross vehicle was shot at from a tank.

"One bullet passed 10 centimeters from the head of the driver," he said. He was lightly injured from shattered glass. Grand said the group would limit its operations to Gaza City.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/09/africa/09mideast-cnd10h30.php?page=2