Israeli troops on Wednesday allegedly stabbed and assaulted wounded Palestinian victims of an Israel Defense Forces drone strike that killed six people in a refugee camp near Tulkarem in the illegally occupied West Bank.
Dr. Radwan Blaibla, head of Tulkarem Medical Syndicate, toldAndalou Agency that Israeli troops forcibly stopped and boarded ambulances rushing Palestinians injured in the airstrike on Nur Shams refugee camp to a hospital in Tulkarem.
“One injured was stabbed in his neck by a soldier while in the ambulance, posing danger to his life,” Blaibla said. “Two others were forcibly taken out from an ambulance and were subject to kicking and beating by the rifles’ buttstocks on their injuries.”
The Israeli soldiers allegedly told their victims: “We don’t want you to reach the hospital. We will kill you before you get there.”
Blaibla called the incident “a flagrant violation of humanitarian law” and urged the international community to hold Israel accountable.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society told Al Jazeera that occupation forces blocked ambulances from transporting airstrike victims to a hospital for at least an hour-and-a-half, during which time multiple people died of their injuries.
The Israeli drone strike on Nur Shams—which killed six Palestinian males including four members of one familiy and three teenagers—came after occupation ground forces invaded the camp early Wednesday morning. The airstrike was reportedly called in after Palestinian resistance fighters clashed with Israeli troops, including snipers posted on rooftops.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 311 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have been killed and more than 3,300 others wounded by Israeli soldiers and settlers since October 7, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel and killed over 1,100 people.
Israel’s retaliatory war on Gaza has left more than 80,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing. Israeli forces have been accused of genocide and war crimes including attacking medical workers and facilities in Gaza, including hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and paramedics.
