Reply #3: OPT: Patients killed as gunmen storm Gaza hospitals [View All]

OPT: Patients killed as gunmen storm Gaza hospitals
12 Jun 2007 15:36:56 GMT
More TEL AVIV, 12 June 2007 (IRIN) - Patients are dying in crossfire as hospitals have been overrun by gunmen in a new wave of Gaza violence, which the UN has warned is jeopardising the delivery of essential humanitarian aid.

The violence has claimed 17 lives and ambulance teams are being prevented from evacuating the wounded from combat zones by checkpoints manned by armed fighters across the Strip, medical organisations said.

Hamas stormed the hospitals because it was worried Fatah would target its wounded fighters. Gaza hospitals have often been the scenes of firefights as the wounded from both sides receive treatment.

Four patients, including one in the operating theatre, died and 10 more were injured in a hospital in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, in violence that has led to the hospital's effective closure, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/f66bddd03c4f970fcb251f4c379c799d.htm