By Awad Rajoob
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - The Palestinian Red Crescent Society asked for protection for medical teams and civilians Friday in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, emphasizing the need for freedom of movement across all Palestinian territories.
Dr. Younis Al-Khatib, the group’s president, made the appeal during a meeting with a joint British-French delegation led by the foreign ministers of both countries, David Lammy and Stéphane Séjourné, respectively, at the organization's headquarters in Al-Bireh.
Lammy and Séjourné arrived earlier in Ramallah from Israel where they met with their Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz. Al-Khatib briefed the delegation on humanitarian and life-saving services the Red Crescent provides in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza.
He stressed “the urgent need to end the ongoing Israeli aggression and ensure immediate protection for civilians and medical personnel, as guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.”
Al-Khatib underscored the importance of “granting the Red Crescent access to all Palestinian cities to carry out its humanitarian missions, particularly noting that while its Gaza teams have been working around the clock for over ten months, Israeli restrictions prevent West Bank teams from entering Gaza to support them.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent employs 3,987 staff members and has 13,413 volunteers. It operates through 389 branches, 15 hospitals and 160 ambulances, according to its website.
Regarding its operations in Gaza, the Red Crescent's report covering the period from Oct. 7 - July 20, detailed that its teams had handled 7,366 deaths, 22,934 injuries and provided emergency services to 61,398 people.
The report highlighted that the Israeli army had killed 20 Red Crescent staff and volunteers and committed 623 violations targeting the organization's personnel and property in the West Bank, along with 147 similar violations in Gaza.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas.
The Israeli onslaught has since killed more than 40,000 victims, mostly women and children, and injured over 92,000, according to local health authorities.
More than 10 months into the Israeli assault, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio