Beit Hanina, Palestine 14 April 2002
Since Israeli troops invaded Palestinian towns and cities on March the 29th, the civilian population has suffered and come under attack. Scores of people have been killed and injured; civilians trapped in their own homes by the soldiers are the sad casualties of the Israeli aggression.
Rana Sa’id Karajeh, a 26-year-old mother was killed yesterday in Bethlehem. She was killed when Israeli soldiers making house-to-house searches in the area blew-up the door of her apartment, normal Israeli military policy when going from building to building. Dr. Peter Qumri of Al-Hussein Governmental Hospital said that when she was brought to the hospital the “whole top of her head had been torn off by the blast, and her eyes were missing”.
The situation in Jenin remains fraught with difficulties. One Red Cross and one Red Crescent ambulance were allowed into the Jenin refugee camp, which has been closed to everyone for the past 9 days. Permitted to collect the bodies of those killed by the Israeli troops in their assault on the camp the ambulances entered this morning.
However, after recovering seven bodies they have withdrawn as the scale of the operation has become evident. Houses have been destroyed and rubble lies all over the area — making it almost impossible to recover the bodies without heavy equipment — something the rescue services do not have access to. According to the medical teams their jobs were made more difficult by the fact that Israeli tanks were not letting them move freely, stopping their progress every few meters.
They desperately request international assistance in order to locate and remove the bodies.
Three injured people, including Ahmad Tubasi who phoned the Medical Relief Committees two days ago, were pulled out from the rubble — thankfully alive.
“This proves our point,” said Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, “that until now many people in the refugee camp require urgent and immediate medical treatment, which is denied to them by the Israeli army. The soldiers are not letting the ambulances through — on the contrary they are making it more difficult. There needs to be an immediate lifting of this curfew so medical personnel can do their work unobstructed.”
