The ambulance drivers were lucky that Israel did not shoot missiles into the ambulances.
This photo shows that, in 2006, Israel really did shoot missiles into ambulances in Lebanon, killing the patients and wounding the attendants inside:
"Israeli missiles had clearly pierced the very centre of the red cross on the roof of each ambulance" --Robert Fisk, in "The Independent" (U.K.), July 26, 2006, on the Web at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-israeli-missiles-had-clearly-pierced-the-very-centre-of-the-red-cross-on-the-roof-of-each-ambulance-409363.html
"Gaza Children Found With Mothers’ Corpses"
PARIS — The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it had discovered “shocking” scenes — including small children next to their mothers’ corpses — when its representatives gained access for the first time to parts of Gaza battered by Israeli shelling. It accused Israel of failing to meet obligations to care for the wounded in areas of combat....
...In an unusually blunt criticism, the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross said it had been seeking access to shell-damaged areas in Zeitoun in the east of Gaza City since Saturday but the Israeli authorities granted permission only on Wednesday — the first day that Israel allowed a three-hour lull in the attacks on Gaza on humanitarian grounds.
The statement said a team of four Palestine Red Crescent ambulances accompanied by Red Cross representatives made its way to Zeitoun Wednesday where it “found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses.”
In another house, the statement said, the rescue team “found 15 other survivors of this attack including several wounded. In yet another house, they found an additional three corpses. Israeli soldiers posted at a military position some 80 meters away from this house ordered the rescue team to leave the area which they refused to do. There were several other positions of the Israeli Defense Forces nearby as well as two tanks.”
Because of berms [earth barriers] built by Israeli forces, the ambulances could not enter the area so “the children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart,” the statement said.
The statement quoted Pierre Wettach, an International Red Cross representative for Israel and the Palestinian areas, as calling the incident “shocking.”
“The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded,” he was quoted as saying.
The statement said the international Red Cross “believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded. It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable.”
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"Red Cross says Israel barred rescuers from shelled Gaza homes:
"The relief agency says the Israeli army refused to grant its team access for four days. The team later found 15 bodies and 18 wounded people in the Gaza City neighborhood"
By Richard Boudreaux and Michael Muskal
January 8, 2009
Full article is in the L.A. Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-redcross9-2009jan09,0,7449388.story
...The Red Cross said it had requested access to the Zeitun neighborhood since Saturday, but the Israeli forces did not grant permission until Wednesday afternoon, four days after homes were hit by Israeli shells.
"The ICRC/PRCS team found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses," the statement said. "They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses."
The Red Cross said the rescue team then went to other houses in the neighborhood where it found 15 survivors, including several wounded. Three other corpses were recovered.
The Israeli army had built earth walls, making it impossible to bring ambulances into the neighborhood, the report said. "Therefore, the children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart," it said.
Israeli soldiers also ordered the rescue team to leave the area but the team refused to depart, the report said.
The Red Cross said it "believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded. It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable."
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations office in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, denied his country was failing in its humanitarian obligations.
"Once the military activity was over, then it was possible for humanitarian teams to evacuate the wounded," he told the Associated Press.
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