Ambulances fired on by Israel, says Red Cross

[Karmadillo]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/ambulances-fired-on-by-israel-says-red-cross/2006/07/24/1153593272695.html

Ambulances fired on by Israel, says Red Cross
Ed O'Loughlin Herald Correspondent in Tyre and agencies
July 25, 2006

<edit>

Israeli jets repeatedly bombed the area east and south of Tyre in the dark, with reports of eight civilians killed and six wounded.

The Red Cross in Tyre said that five of its volunteers and three patients were wounded when Israeli aircraft attacked two ambulances on Sunday night. The attack took place near Qana when an ambulance from Tyre arrived to evacuate three patients from the border town of Tibnin.

The drivers said that two guided missiles were fired at each ambulance. Three patients - a woman, her son and grandson - were all re-injured, the son losing his leg to a direct hit from one of the kinetic-energy anti-tank missiles.

Ambulance drivers - until Sunday night the only people able to drive out into the killing zone - report that the roads around Tibnin are strewn with wrecked vehicles and uncollected bodies. The Red Cross has now been forced to abandon all attempts to rescue wounded from Tibnin.

More than 369 Lebanese have died since the fighting began on July 12, almost all of them non-combatants. Twenty Israeli combat personnel have died and 17 Israeli civilians have been killed.

more...

[uppityperson]

1. k&r for medical workers who should NOT be bombed.

[JAYJDF]

2. WEll, what do all you Israeli supports think about this?

Not a wayward bomb, but targeting ambulances.

[Jacobin]

4. The Red Cross is anti-semitic?

:shrug:

[LostinVA]

24. I'm so waiting for that to be posted n/t

[Scriptor Ignotus]

19. I'm not trying to defend the bombing of amublances

but just for the record, ambulances have been used as weapons against Israel in the past. You can google around and probably find more instances. Just being devil's advocate here...

http://www.adl.org/israel/israel_explosives.asp
http://www.standwithus.com/pdfs/flyers/UNAmbulance.pdf

[CuteNFuzzy]

20. would you have pulled the trigger?

(or pushed the Fire Missile button) at that ambulance?

I could not ever.

[DELUSIONAL]

22. and this is why the ignore button was created on the 7th day

[LostinVA]

23. So, it's okay to attack every ambulance, no matter what?

This ambulance wasn't exactly headed towards a trench full of Israeli soldiers...

Good grief.

These other circumstances are moot.

Firing on civilians is sickening, and immoral and illegal... no matter who does it.

Excusing this attack? OMG.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

39. you don't know what the term

"devil's advocate" means, do you?

[LostinVA]

47. Duh... I'm a stupid bitch... what does that eman... duh

Knock off the condescension. Of course I do. However, there's a difference between playing Devil's Advocate and inching over the line into apologist. I personally feel the links inched over.

Go patronize the other posters who disagreed with you.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. This is after Red Crescent says it was fired on...

[ThomCat]

5. Well, of course...

You know they're probably smuggling rockets and weapons in those ambulances. Right? So that makes them valid targets.
:eyes:

[jonnyblitz]

21. that is always the excuse .

there is a bomb under the pregnant woman who is miscarrying and trying to get to the hospital. :sarcasm:

[The Stranger]

6. When is this going to end?

[LeftCoast]

7. Hmm...so now Israel is defending itself against ambulances

Maybe they were anti-semitic ambulances?

[CuteNFuzzy]

9. Maybe we should sign some legislation

in a bold show of support for bombing rescue services?

[tocqueville]

8. they probably thought it was the Swiss Hezbollah

[xultar]

10. ROFLPNMP!!!!!!!!!!!! I know I shouldn't but funny and ironic.

[Pacifist Patriot]

15. My proclivity towards gallows humor reared its ugly head too.

That was a clever and biting barb. The photo is just astounding.

[xultar]

18. They blew out the phones so no one could call for help. Maybe they

assumed that fact and concluded that any Red Cross vehicle out and about was up to no good.

[CuteNFuzzy]

11. You know what I see when I look at this picture?

Hate.

[Poll_Blind]

13. Oh yeah. You got that right. n/t

PB

[Poll_Blind]

12. Damn, absolutely direct hit. Not a mistake. Disgusting. n/t

PB

[CuteNFuzzy]

14. The precise targeting is going as planned

[LostinVA]

25. Oh gods, I so feel bad for that making me laugh n/t

[Amonester]

34. I am sorry (NOT), but the pilot (or pilots, I don't know) who did that

should be formally accused and tried at The Hague for (at least 1) war crime. No exception for any heartless criminal (or criminals) anywhere, wearing any uniform(s).

The Law Is the Law (International or not)!

(Of course, I & we have no power at all, thanks to the criminals, the murderers of children in charge or not.) :mad:

[Canuckistanian]

36. Dead center - nice shot

Too bad about all the dead and re-injured people.
:grr:

[partylessinOhio]

16. I posted this earlier with a photo.

Here is the photo:

Lebanese soldiers and civilians check the damage to an ambulance that was hit during an Israeli airstrike in Zahrani, in southern Lebanon.

[6000eliot]

17. How dare they point this out.

They must be anti-Semitic. Because you can't criticize the Israeli government without being anti-Semitic. :sarcasm:

[originalpckelly]

26. It is a violation of the First Geneva Convention Art. 12 to do this:

"Art. 12. Members of the armed forces and other persons mentioned in the following Article, who are wounded or sick, shall be respected and protected in all circumstances.

They shall be treated humanely and cared for by the Party to the conflict in whose power they may be, without any adverse distinction founded on sex, race, nationality, religion, political opinions, or any other similar criteria. Any attempts upon their lives, or violence to their persons, shall be strictly prohibited; in particular, they shall not be murdered or exterminated, subjected to torture or to biological experiments; they shall not wilfully be left without medical assistance and care, nor shall conditions exposing them to contagion or infection be created."

http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/7c4d08d9b287a42141256739003e636b/fe20c3d903ce27e3c125641e004a92f3

[chimpymustgo]

27. Never again, huh? The world just sits by. This is shameful. Hateful

madness.

[jseankil]

28. NBC showed the ambulances that were targeted, clearly marked, clearly hit.

A giant red cross on top of the ambulance, there is no way this was a mistake. Israels credibitly is sinking fast in America.

[CuteNFuzzy]

30. actually

I think a lot of right-wing idiots think it's great.

They seem to be cheering on Israel's bold aggression. As if Israel is showing how an invasion should be done.

[Ms. Clio]

31. not just rightwing idiots, unfortunately n/t

[Tom Joad]

38. Kerry is cheering.

[blonndee]

29. Kick. The truth hurts. nt

[Lurking Dem]

32. No excuse.

[leftchick]

33. how the fuck were they to know it was a Red Cross Ambulance?

:sarcasm:

It wouldn't be the red cross on the roof would it? :grr:



This image taken from video made by Lebanese Red Cross workers Sunday, July 23, 2006 in Qana, south Lebanon, and made available to AP Television, shows the roof of a Lebanese Red Cross ambulance destroyed in what they say was an Israeli airstrike. The Red Cross workers who provided AP Television News with the video said that nine ambulance workers were wounded in the explosion as they tried to ferry injured people from the town of Qana, 20 kilometers (about 12 and a half miles) from Tyre, to hospital. AP Television cannot independently verify whether the Red Cross workers were hit by an Israeli airstrike. (AP Photo)

[Zebedeo]

35. It's hard to believe that no one was killed

in that ambulance! The munition that hit it must not have detonated.

Anyway, it is a disgrace to deliberately target an ambulance.

[Tom Joad]

37. Routine Israeli action. You want pics? I got pics.

When i was in Nablus, West Bank, a UN worker asked another observer if he had any pics of the tank hitting the UN ambulance. It was quite deliberate. Like i said, this is routine. What better way to create terror than to destroy the lifeline to help? Isn't this what this is all about? To break people's will to resist?



http://www.health-now.org/site/article.php?articleId=340&menuId=15
14 September 2004 – Israeli soldiers caused extensive damage to a PRCS Ambulance in Jerusalem when it stopped near Al-Buraq wall. The ambulance was on route back from Bethlehem through the Gilo checkpoint. The soldiers stopped the ambulance at the north–west entrance of the wall and checked the crew’s identification cards. The soldiers then ordered the crew out of the ambulance and began to vandalize the internal compartment. They damaged the medical supply cabinets and medical equipment causing extensive damage to the ambulances entire cabin.


This was not from the Nablus incident, but I believe in 2002.

[ThomCat]

41. But of course Israel only acts in self defense.

:eyes:

The attack on ambulances and civilian infrastructure infuriates me more than anything else. That is the proof that Israel is a terrorist nation.

[OneBlueSky]

40. it seems that Israel has learned well from BushCo . . .

that no weapon is too horrific, no attack too unfathomable, no target too off limits . . .

what Israel is doing in Lebanon and what the US is doing in Iraq are war crimes of the highest order -- yet the community of nations seems unwilling or unable to stop them . . .

and that, my friends, is very scary indeed . . . because the logical next step is the nuclear one -- once unthinkable by civilized nations, now just another weapon ready to be used at the "appropriate" time . . .

[RSMS9999]

42. please calm down

There is no way to know who and what were in that ambulence. Just because you have strong feelings against israel doesnt mean that everything Israel does is a war crime. There may have been no terrorists or weapons in the ambulence at the time and it could have been a truly devastating mistake of targets or a case of collateral damage. There is also a real possibility that hezbollah was using it to move rockets that are fired into israel. Nobody on this message board actually knows for sure.

-If you think this is just an "excuse", know that terrorists using things such as ambulences and other "civilian infastructure" is very commonplace. Watch this video and then tell me with 100% certainty that this was a "war crime"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avm-9IglHTg&search=palestinian%20ambulence

[arikara]

43. Sigh. we know... we know...

If you don't know what's in the ambulance that makes it fair game. It just might not be full of victims from the other 50 bombs that were lobbed on homes and hospitals.

And we know... we know... its not a war crime if Israel does it because that would be "anti-semetic".

[dougkeenan]

44. Quite an accusation ...

... that Red Cross uses ambulances to transport rockets.

[OneBlueSky]

45. "Just because you have strong feelings against israel" . . .

please don't make assumptions -- or put words in my mouth . . . nothing could be farther from the truth . . .

what I have strong feelings against is the "collective punishment" that Israel is doling out in Lebanon . . . it's illegal and immoral . . .

[Binka]

46. Back Again?

Sock puppet much? And do not tell me to calm down. Who the fuck do you think you are? This is an outrageous act by Israel and I will respond with my own outrage!

[LostinVA]

48. Bwwwwwaaaaahhhhhh

Dude, you are so like GLASS.

And, knock off the condensation.