URGENT!! All Medical Services Cut Off to Palistinians in Ramallah!

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday March 15, 2002 08:55 by Auntie Jingo

More firing on Red Cross and Red Crescent ambulances, total cut off of all medical services in Ramallah!

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

[The following message from 'Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees and
'Physicians for Human Rights-Israel' reached us after midnight (Israeli time).
Through a telephone chain the Physicians for Human Rights called upon other peace
and human rights activists to assist in the effort of approaching political
officials, diplomats, etc. We were told that the situation worsened after the
email was written on, because Red Cross vehicles which were accompanying Red Crescent
ambulances were fired on this evening and they have ceased accompaniment.
This means that all medical services in Ramallah are totally cut off at this point.
Doctors and patients can not get to the hospitals. PHR is currently trying to help
a pregnant woman in El-Bireh get to a hospital, there are people who are wounded.
Please, contact whoever you can. See also contact information in the end of this message.]

The 'Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees' and 'Physicians for
Human Rights - Israel' jointly appeal for an end to the humanitarian nightmare
in the Palestinian territories.
Ramallah is now under complete occupation, 120 tanks are present on the
streets, and both helicopters and tanks are bombarding different
neighborhoods with missiles. Two hospitals, the Ramallah Hospital and
Ramallah Maternity Hospital, have been fired upon by Israeli troops. Also,
as in many places in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, soldiers have this
morning fired upon two ambulances in Ramallah.

Additionally the Israeli army is preventing access to medical care for the
sick and wounded, by forbidding their movement to hospital, and also by
refusing medical teams access to them for treatment at the scene. Clearly,
preventing access to the wounded will lead to more deaths; preventing sick
people from receiving treatment will also contribute to more deaths.

We urgently demand action from the world - international and humanitarian
organizations must immediately force the Israeli government to halt this
atrocity. We call upon you to demonstrate, to call governmental
representatives, to take any action that will allow Palestinian wounded
and ill to receive medical treatment - preventing more unnecessary deaths.
We also plead for foreign governments to act to bring an immediate halt to
this aggression by the Israeli army, and an end to this humanitarian crisis.
-----------------------------------------------
Please contact (some of) the following by (1)email, and (2)fax and
telephone - as far as
available:

(1) email addresses
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Spokesperson of the Prime Minister
Defence Minister Benjamin Beneliezer
Deputy Defense Minister Dalia Rabin Pilosof, [email protected]
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres ,
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan [email protected], [email protected]
US President George W. Bush [email protected]
"Secretary of State, Colin Powell" ,
"Mr. Terje Rod Larsen Personal Representative of the Secretary General to
the United Nations in Palestine" [email protected], [email protected]
Ms. Mary Robinson UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Council of the European Union
[email protected]
[email protected],
[email protected]

(2)
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon: The Office of the Prime Minister, Kiryat
Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem, Israel; Office Tel. 972-2-6705555/10Fax:
972-2-566-4838/6705415;

Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres: HaKirya Romema Jerusalem 91950
Tel. 972 2 5303531/3631/530 fax (+972-2) 5303506 /
5303896 5303367

Commander, Civil Administration Fax 972 2 9977326

President George W. Bush,
Fax: +1-202-456-2461;
phone: (202) 456-1414

Secretary of State Colin Powell,
Fax: +1-202-261-8577;

Further Details:

Hadas Ziv +972(0)50-228599 (Physicians for Human Rights-Israel)
[email protected]

Rabbi Arik Asherman (Rabbis For Human Rights)
[email protected] Tel. 972 (0)2 563-7731