Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Frontiers for Médecins Sans Frontières

A BMJ article this week details how the Israeli army have obstructed medical access to civilians in Rafah.
Dr Butin, local medical coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières states
our teams, though officially authorised to travel, are having guns pointed at them and their path blocked by tanks....
...I myself was with a group that was shot at, in a tent where we were holding a clinic. The only people there were MSF workers and mothers and their children. Our car was outside, clearly marked, and we had the flag showing. Bullets started coming through the tent and we all lay on the ground. I telephoned the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] and the fire stopped immediately. The army told us we could leave, but said once we were gone they would continue to fire on the Palestinians.


At least 43 Palestinians were killed during Israeli incursions into the refugee camp on the Egyptian border. In one incident, 10 demonstrators, mostly children, were killed when tank shells were fired into a crowd protesting at the incursion.

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