Israels airstrikes have targeted an ambulance carrying injured civilians towards the Rafah border...

[starfleet]

The images coming through on news channels are horrific.

I don't think they're being that calculating. I think it's a mix of rage and Netanyahu trying to bolster his approval ratings.

I don't know what they should have done after the terrorist attack but seeing them take the bait is disappointing. I am very upset to hear about the attacks in the West Bank.

I support Israel as a state and think they have the right to defend themselves, within the legal constraints of the laws of war. I don't see why they'd deliberately target ambulances - there's nothing to gain by doing that - but I can't really shrug off accidents, either.

@quiteoldad I don't think most of our politicians do have a sense of right from wrong. If I'd ever wondered why they were partying during Covid, or why they allow raw sewage in our rivers, or why so many children in the UK are in poverty - it's all clear now. These people don't draw the line at starving 1m children, and still sleep fine. Grim.

@AgingDisgracefullyHere Members of the Israeli government have called Palestinians animals and subhuman. Sometimes the gain is killing a Palestinian, I just don't understand why the Israeli people keep voting in such extreme right wing politicians.

I think it's because it doesn't impact them, they're safe from those things therefore it doesn't matter. Their right and wrong goes as far as how it impacts them.

@Struggggggling Probably! Very disappointing though.

Powerful video here by physician interviewed on the news who has worked at Al Shifa hospital for 16 yrs and explains his experiences and the fact that he has never seen a shred of evidence hamas was present there, and the atrocity of israeli govt always bombing health infrastructure, laying bare what is going on.

well worth a watch!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Palestine/comments/17n0u8w/this_great_physician_just_wrote_his_own_death/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Although there us no proof that Hamas was using the ambulance even if rhetorically speaking it was the attack could be considered a war crime

PRCS statement

A building in front of Al-Quds Hospital has just been bombed.

It’s at the point where no one can feasibly deny that this is apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

Whether they continue to support it or not and turn a blind eye to it whilst trotting out the same tired lines is simply indicative of their own appetite for the destruction of Palestinian life.

They do seem to be targeting hospitals 😢

What processes are there in place to stop them breaking the Geneva Convention? What's the point in having these things set up if they can't be enforced.

I'm starting to blame the US for supporting them to be honest.

I am sure that hiding under the cover of being medical aid has been a thing in every war. I am dismayed that Israel has, indeed deliberately targeted the ambulance. I do believe that they believe they were targeting Hamas, but I don't think they realise how this is just going to fuck them up in the long run.

Although no foreign nationals have crossed into Egypt today, I saw this on BBC news. I saw a video, over a week ago, of the girl in the photo almost in tears and absolutely terrified, asking where they were meant to go after the announcement of a ground invasion. She was holding a British passport in the video and I wondered what would happen. I'm glad to see that she and her family, at least, escaped safely.

Alongside marches, there are also currently huge sit-ins in Leeds and Glasgow Central train stations, demanding a ceasefire now.

Copying a link of a video from the news. I don't have Twitter/X so let's see if it works!

x.com/TheSkotia/status/1720781287055609986?s=20

Please tell me how you’ve deduced that Israel is only targeting Hamas and not civilians when there are now 9,500 civilian deaths in less than 4 weeks, almost 4,000 babies and children among them, without mentioned they 1,000 babies, toddlers and children currently trapped under rubble.

This isn’t the first time Israel has targeted an ambulance. Not by a long shot:
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2023/10/12/war-crime-gaza-medics-say-israel-targeting-ambulances-health-facilities

From that article:

Doctors Without Borders, (Medecins sans Frontieres, also known by its acronym MSF), said it had counted 16 medical personnel killed since Saturday, 18 ambulances destroyed and eight medical facilities damaged either totally or partially.
Sohaib Safi, medical coordinator for MSF in Gaza, said the scale of the damage was “very clear evidence” that medical aid in the enclave was being intentionally attacked by Israeli forces.
“When ambulances are trying to reach areas under fire, they are targeted as a message that no one should get inside to evacuate injured or stuck people,” Safi told Al Jazeera. As a result, taxis and private cars had increasingly been taking up the task of transferring the wounded to hospitals to avoid attracting attention.

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If you look into this you will find a tonne of articles where Israel has deliberately attacked ambulances and PRCS (Palestinian leg of Red Cross) workers:

“We live under Israel’s military occupation that enjoys chronic impunity with regular attacks on ambulances and hospitals, and which kills civilians with zero accountability.”

Attacks on health remain relentless
During May 2021, the PRCS reported almost daily attacks on their staff and facilities in the West Bank, with three ambulances put out of use due to damage. The Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition identified 169 incidents of violence against or obstruction of healthcare in the occupied Palestinian territory in 2021, including violence perpetrated by Israeli forces and settlers.

https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive/post/1381-israeli-forces-obstruct-palestinian-paramedics-and-attack-ambulances-in-nablus

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There have also been instances of when paramedics in Israel leave Palestinians to die. There was a very famous example where a Palestinian man was shot and they left him to bleed out from his injuries for two hours before paramedics arrived to pronounce him dead.

Further examples, from the below article that has a lot of detail on the matter:

According to a report on the settlers’ website Israel National News, Kanievsky told them that if the injured Palestinian “was in a life-threatening condition, they should leave him or her to die”. Other rabbis have madesimilar calls.

The issue of Israel’s treatment of injured Palestinians was thrust into the spotlight late last month when a soldier from the Israeli army’s medical corps was caught executing a badly injured Palestinian in the West Bank city of Hebron.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2016/4/20/israel-rabbi-to-paramedics-leave-palestinians-to-die

I didn't say that. I said that I think they believe they're targeting Hamas. I think they likely don't much worry about the civilians also hit.

I don't think they see an ambulance and think "let's kill those civilians."

This is awful.

Yes I understood what you were saying, but in response I was saying that I disagree and that I believe that they are deliberately targeting hospitals and ambulances, and I then provided 3 articles (one from the 12 October, so very close to the start, and two articles from before it even started, to show how the denial of healthcare to Palestinians has been a pattern for quite some time).

I don't think they see an ambulance and think "let's kill those civilians."

You know what they say if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck....etc

This is genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Exactly

How many Palestinian civilians 's deaths do you thing is acceptable? One Israeli death for 7 Palestinians ( the ratio now)? I don't think this is proportionate. Do you?

I think lots of people just can't comprehend the vicious, calculating cruel regime that Israel have inflicted on Palestinians for decades. I heard an American lawyer talking about her time in Gaza in 2009, when a missile hit a Palestinian home and Israel prevented the red Cross from going to help for 3 days. For 3 days they blocked them on purpose. When they finally got in there were 8 children alive, they had had no food or water and were surrounded by dead relatives in the shell of their home. They had been there for 3 days. Israel kept them there for 3 days. This is just one story of endless stories of the needless pain and suffering that Israel have put individual Palestinian people and children through for decades. If you had the time you could pull up 1000s and 1000s of stories of times Israel acted in a cruel fashion against Palestinians for no reason at all. Why prevent aid from reaching them? Why not let people help anyone who might still be alive until 3 days later when they will almost certainly be dead?

@OuiOuiKitty Great post. I totally agree. I think when people stop seeing a person as a fellow traveller on this planet and that person as 'less', it's a tragedy. Because it's lethal not only for the person who is seen as lesser, it's also lethal for the person who feels they are worth more, as it removes some of their humanity. Israel is displaying behaviour that is anti humanity. They are leading with fear and a lack of hope in humans and feel they are 'better' and they must strike back to show they aren't weak, therefore the cruelty they display is justified as Palestinians are 'less'.

When a state or religion starts seeing a whole population as less it leads to catastrophe, which is what people are seeing now. Those of us who are denouncing the anti humanity Israel are displaying are labelled naive, anti semitic, supporting evil, siding with terrorists but by not denouncing it (and in some cases on here are in fact supporting it), is anti humanity. The bullied have become the bully and it's looking very very ugly.