Palestinian Red Crescent suspends medical operations in Gaza, saying it can’t protect its medics, patients

After three paramedics were arrested on Sunday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society suspended its medical operations in the Gaza Strip, the organization said on Monday.

Red Crescent ambulance crew and paramedics have been targeted by Israel’s ongoing aggression on the strip on multiple occasions.The Red Crescent’s Amal Hospital, along with a majority of the strip’s hospitals, has also been directly targeted by bombardment as well as in ground operations by Israeli troops, devastating the capacity of the facilities to provide healthcare to the strip’s tens of thousands of wounded.

The society said in its statement on Monday that it took the decision to suspend its medical services due to "its failure to ensure the safety and security of its staff, patients, and injured individuals within its hospitals, medical centers, and ambulances.”

This was due to "the Israeli Occupation's non-compliance with and respect for agreed coordination procedures and mechanisms with United Nations organizations," the agency’s statement added.

PRCS cited the arrest of three of its paramedics by Israeli forces during a mission to evacuate patients and injured individuals from Amal Hospital in Khan Younis. The mission, conducted in collaboration with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), had obtained prior Israeli approval, including route specifications and the identities of the participating crew, the statement  said.

Despite the prior coordination, the Occupation obstructed the convoy's passage for around seven hours at a military checkpoint west of the Amal neighborhood. 

Three paramedics were bound, forced to strip and arrested. One was released several hours later, while the other two remain in detention.

The Red Crescent called for their release, pointing as well to the Occupation’s repeated, targeted attacks on medical facilities, vehicles and staff, obstruction of aid delivery, and the arrest of medical personnel.

Similar incidents saw Red Crescent staff who were deployed to respond to a distress call from a young child, Hind, targeted despite having gained permission, while targeted airstrikes killed four people in a Red Crescent ambulance convoy in another incident.

It said it would assess the situation with the United Nations to ensure the safety of its teams and vehicles, seeking international intervention to guarantee protection against risks of harm or fatality.

In the absence of the Red Crescent, health provision in the strip is compromised even further. As of February 22, the World Health Organization said that there are only 12 partially functional hospitals operating in Gaza out of the over 50 facilities that used to serve the population.

Facilities, including Nasser Medical Complex, south Gaza’s largest health facility, have been pushed out of service by targeted Occupation operations.

The Occupation military announced on Sunday that it had concluded its operation at Nasser hospital, two weeks after it stormed the facility, claiming to have intelligence of Hamas operations from the complex.

The military claimed to have carried out its mission with minimal disruption to the hospital's operations, without harming patients and medical staff, while providing a generator to ensure the hospital's continued operation for treating patients, as well as providing food and water supplies.

Yet in a Thursday statement, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza noted that, despite the Occupation forces’ withdrawal from the complex itself, they remained positioned in its vicinity, indicating the continuation of the siege.

Occupation forces continue to restrict movement in and out of the complex, leaving medical staff without water, food and electricity.

As for the impact of Israel’s operation on the hospital, 13 patients died due to electricity outages that interrupted oxygen supplies. Medical staff buried them in the hospital grounds.

The operation has rendered the hospital inoperable, a Tuesday statement from the ministry said, leaving strained medical workers with no access to functioning generators and more than 120 patients to evacuate for urgent medical care.

The Occupation besieged the complex for weeks, during which it arrested at least 70 of the hospital’s medical personnel, and killed and injured dozens of civilians in and around the facility by sniper fire and continuous shelling. 

Prior to the raid, thousands of displaced individuals sheltering within the complex were forced to evacuate to Rafah city, passing through a military checkpoint where dozens of civilians were arrested.