During this reporting period, the Israeli Army has continued to violate International Humanitarian Law and Fundamental Human Rights, by restricting freedom of movement to Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulances and its medical teams. Delays, denial of access and arbitrary searches had a negative impact on the sick and wounded in Tulkarem, Nablus, Bethlehem and Gaza Strip.

Al Mawasi, 03/10/2004 (08:30 AM): A PRCS ambulance was stopped and denied access by the Israeli soldiers, at Al-Tuffah checkpoint, while on route to transport a woman in labor to a local Palestinian hospital. Forty-five minutes later, at 09:15am, the baby was born at the checkpoint, inside the ambulance. The crew waited at the checkpoint until 10:00am. After coordination efforts made by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to allow access to the ambulance had failed, the crew was obliged to return back to base.

Jabalyia, 04/10/2004 (22:30PM): The Israeli Army opened fire towards a crowd of Palestinians and fired one tank round, which exploded near a PRCS ambulance, causing damage to the ambulance. Fortunately, the PRCS crew sustained no injuries.

Rafah, 05/10/2004 (06:50 AM): A PRCS ambulance was stopped and denied access by the Israeli soldiers, in Burj Zuroub area, while on route to evacuate a wounded person. The PRCS ambulance waited for access, but at 09:20am, Israeli soldiers handed over the wounded person to a Palestinian Ministry of Health ambulance. The wounded person, a 13 year old girl was declared dead by medical officials, who reported that 20 (5 in the head) bullets had penetrated the victim’s body.

Jabaliya, 07/10/2004 (11:30 AM): A PRCS ambulance was stopped and denied access by Israeli soldiers while on route to transport a sick person from Muaskar Jabaliya area to a local Palestinian hospital. The crew was obliged to return back to base. After coordination efforts made by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to allow the ambulance access, the crew proceeded once again to the area. Due to the location of the patient’s house, the ambulance could not reach it, which obliged the crew to go on foot. Suddenly, and without any provocation Israeli soldiers opened fired towards the crew. Fortunately, no injuries were reported and the crew was forced to wait an additional 45 minutes inside the patient’s house for their safety. After intervention by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the ambulance crew succeeded in transporting the patient to the hospital.

In addition to the above, the following table lists incidents of delay and denial of access during this reporting period.

PRCS Branch	Date	Checkpoint	Delay of access (unless indicated 'denied access')
Gaza	03/10/2004	Al Tuffah	105 minutes
	06/10/2004	Beit Hanoun	330 minutes
	06/10/2004	Al Tuffah	100 minutes
	09/10/2004	Al Tuffah	100 minutes
Tulkarem	05/10/2004	Nur Shams St	60 minutes & denied access
Nablus	05/10/2004	Huwwara	170 minutes
Bethlehem	08/10/2004	Ifrat	130 minutes

During this reporting period, a total of 61 deaths and 106 injuries were reported in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

These practices constitute a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the First Additional Protocol of the Geneva Conventions, which are legally applied to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In particular, they violate articles 20 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which guarantees the protection and respect of persons who engage in the search for, removal and transport of and caring for wounded and sick civilians, and article 63 which stresses that ” Subject to temporary and exceptional measures imposed for urgent reasons of security by the Occupied Power, recognized National red cross and red crescent societies shall be able to pursue their activities in accordance with Red Cross principles, as defined by the international Red Cross Conferences…”. In addition to articles 12 and 15 of the First Additional Protocol of the Geneva conventions which guarantees that “ Medical units shall be respected and protected at all times and shall not be the object of attack and shall have access to any place where their services are essential” and article 16 which stresses that, “Under no circumstances shall any person be punished for carrying out medical activities compatible with medical ethics, regardless of the person benefiting there from.”, in addition to article 21, which stresses that,” Medical vehicles shall be respected and protected in the same way as mobile medical units under the Conventions and this Protocol.”