NEW YORK- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is calling on medical organizations to speak out against the Palestinian Authority’s exploitation of ambulances as a cover for terrorist activities.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “We call on groups such as the American Medical Association, and especially those which have been critical of Israel, such as Physicians for Human Rights, to speak out against the Palestinian Arabs’ grotesque exploitation of ambulances to facilitate terrorism.”
The Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported (May 25, 2004), that the PA has been using fake ambulances to smuggle PA officers including members of Yasir Arafat’s Force 17 terrorist bodyguard unit into Israel, disguised as sick patients. The ruse exploits Israel’s humanitarian willingness to refrain from the usual security measures when ambulances are transporting patients.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz revealed (Ma’ariv, May 14, 2004) that after Palestinian Arab terrorists murdered eleven Israeli soldiers in Gaza earlier this month, they smuggled some of the body parts out of the area in ambulances operated by the United Nations Work Relief Assocation (UNRWA). Mofaz urged U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to take action.
An Israel Television – Channel 10 broadcast footage on May 24, 2004, showed armed Palestinian Arab terrorists using UNRWA ambulances to flee from the Israeli Army. To view an excerpt from the report, see: www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/mainpage.asp?sl=EN&id=7&docid=31540.EN
In a new report, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center of Israel’s Center for Special Studies has revealed:
* “Reuters has a video cassette of pictures taken during the Israeli army operation in the Zeitun quarter of Gaza City on May 11, 2004. It shows armed Palestinians using UNRWA ambulances to transport terrorists and possibly also remains of fallen Israeli soldiers.”
* “Since the beginning of the current ongoing hostilities, several incidents have been recorded in which terrorist organizations have used UNRWA facilities and vehicles (including ambulances) to facilitate their terrorist operations … Nidal ‘Abd al-Fataah ‘Abdallah Nizal, a Hamas activist from Qalqiliya who worked as an UNRWA ambulance driver (arrested in August 2002), admitted he had used one such vehicle to transport munitions to terrorists and had also exploited the freedom of movement he enjoyed to transmit messages to and from Hamas activists in various places … Nahd Rashid Ahmad Atallah, a senior UNRWA employee working in the Gaza Strip who was in charge of distributing aid to refugees (arrested in August 2002), admitted that during June and July 2002 he had given rides in his car – an UNRWA vehicle – to armed terrorists belonging to the Popular Resistance Committees … Atallah explained that he had used his car to transport terrorists to their targets because it belonged to the United Nations, and since the Israeli army did not search such vehicles, he could travel freely. His admission is a striking example of the way terrorist organizations exploit the privileges of relaxed security restrictions accorded UNRWA vehicles by Israeli forces.”