WHO calls for protection of humanitarian workers in Gaza after staff detained at checkpoint
Displaced Palestinians line up to receive food donations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on November 30, 2023. (Photo: Mohamed Abed / AFP via AFP Getty Images).
The World Health Organization (WHO) called for the protection of humanitarian and health workers in Gaza, some of whom were detained and beaten at a checkpoint, while another was stripped naked during a “high-risk” mission. Saturday City Hospital.
The WHO team, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) were tasked with “providing medical supplies, assessing the hospital situation and transferring seriously injured patients to hospital”. hospital in the south,” WHO said in a statement on Tuesday.
On Saturday, as the convoy traveled north, it was checked at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, where ambulance crews were asked to leave their vehicles for identification.
The WHO said two PRCS personnel were detained for more than an hour after they left their vehicles. According to WHO staff, one of the Palestinian Red Crescent members was forced to his knees at gunpoint and then removed from view, “he was harassed, beaten, stripped and searched,” the report said.
Wadi Gaza checkpoints are maintained by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The IDF acknowledged receiving a question from CNN about the incident, but did not respond.
As they passed the checkpoint, their convoy was fired upon, WHO said.
“As the mission entered Gaza City, an aid truck carrying medical supplies and an ambulance were hit by bullets,” the WHO said.
He did not say who shot them.
After successfully completing its mission at Al-Ahli Hospital, the convoy was stopped at the same Wadi Gaza checkpoint on its return. According to the WHO, one of the two PRCS employees was detained for further questioning.
“The mission took several attempts to coordinate their release, but finally – after more than two and a half hours – for the safety and well-being of the patients, the difficult decision had to be made to leave the most dangerous area and advance. Humanitarian workers,” the statement said.
WHO said its staff met the PRCS worker after his release on Sunday.
The man said he was “harassed, beaten, threatened, stripped and blindfolded” during his arrest.
“They tied his hands behind his back and treated him in a degrading and humiliating manner. On release, they tied his hands even more behind his back and allowed him to walk south without clothes or shoes,” the WHO condemned.
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