iranian red crescent

Head of National Humanitarian Law Committee and President of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Dr. Seyed Amir Mohsen Ziaee, made a statement regarding the attacks on relief teams and ambulances in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. In his statement, Dr. Ziaee mentioned:

“Unfortunately, in recent days attacks on medical facilities and relief teams had led to raise deep concerns on respect to the International Humanitarian Rules and Principles which has been stipulated in Fourth Geneva Conventions as an Erga Omnes obligation.

According to reports, there have been 53 attacks against Palestine relief teams and ambulances in which 37 emergency medical technicians (EMTs) were wounded and around 20 ambulances were damaged since October 3rd when the latest round of attacks by Israeli occupation forces against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, including Jerusalem, began.  Furthermore, there are 24 cases in which Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulances were hindered and prevented from reaching wounded Palestinians.

There is no doubt , hindering the work of relief teams and  preventing them from carrying out their humanitarian duty, including reaching injured persons, providing them with First Aid and ensuring their transfer to hospitals, constitute a grave breach of IHL provisions which stipulate that National Societies must be allowed to provide humanitarian services to those in need. In This regard, the Fourth Geneva Convention in particular states that the occupying power should assure access to medical services and medical personnel and the continuance of such violations can be considered as War Crimes which have been stated at Article 5 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In this line, Iranian Red Crescent Society and National Committee of Humanitarian Law of Islamic Republic of Iran condemn the violation of IHL in Occupied Palestine Territories and calls on International Community and other relevant international bodies and entities to remind the international humanitarian obligations in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Conventions 1949 and other international binding documents.

Seyed Amir Mohsen Ziaee, M.D.

President of Iranian Red Crescent

& President of National Committee of Humanitarian Law”