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III. CIVILIAN ATTACKS ON MEDICAL PERSONNEL

In addition to IDF attacks on Palestinian ambulances and medical personnel, Israeli settlers in areas under Israeli security control have stoned PRCS personnel and vehicles, and Palestinian civilians in areas under Israeli security control have stoned Magen David Adom ambulances.

According to Magen David Adom, as of October 15, twenty-three of its ambulances had been damaged by stoning by Palestinian demonstrators, and four of its medical personnel injured, one with a broken hand and three who required stitches to close head wounds. Demonstrators also set alight one of the 9 ambulances that had been stoned on September 29, destroying it completely. The majority of these cases took place during clashes in Jerusalem between Palestinians and Israeli police and border police. Only Magen David Adom ambulances have permits to operate in Jerusalem, and Magen David Adom ambulances treated both Palestinian and Israeli wounded during those clashes.

The PRCS also reports stoning attacks by Israeli settlers on its ambulances and other vehicles marked with the PRCS emblem. In at least some cases IDF officers were present but did not take action to prevent attacks by settlers. A PRCS emergency medical technician based in the West Bank town of al-Bireh told Human Rights Watch that at about 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 8, he and his team responded to a call from the Israeli civil coordinator at the Bet El settlement to treat Palestinians injured when their car was stoned by settlers near the Eli settlement on the Ramallah-Nablus road. On the way to the site they passed through an IDF checkpoint where soldiers told them that the injured Palestinians were at the Shiloh intersection further ahead. When they arrived there they encountered three Israeli settlers from Shiloh, who stoned the ambulance. They continued a short distance further, past the Eli junction, then returned after finding no evidence of injured persons. When they reached the Eli junction, they were stoned by fifteen to twenty settlers from Eli settlement and quickly retreated. They waited about 150 meters away from the intersection until an IDF officer and three soldiers arrived in a jeep. The officer told the ambulance driver, "Come with me; you are under my protection," and escorted them back to where the settlers were. As the officer was speaking with the settlers, the settlers suddenly surrounded the ambulance and stoned it again, breaking all its windows. The driver quickly reversed again. After a few minutes a microbus arrived to take the settlers back to the settlement. The jeep then approached the ambulance again and the IDF officer told the ambulance driver to leave.

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