By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
May 14, 2004
Palestinian Arab terrorists used UN ambulances to steal and transport parts of the bodies of five IDF soldiers killed in an ambush along the Gaza-Egypt border Wednesday, Defense Minister Sha’ul Mofaz said.
The ambulances belonged to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East – better known as UNWRA.
During a visit Friday to the Gaza Strip, Mofaz called on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to deal with the cynical use of UNWRA by the “Palestinians” in acts of terrorism against Israelis.
It was not the first time UN and other ambulances had been used in such ways.
Meanwhile, Wednesday’s deadly attack on an IDF APC along the Gaza-Egypt border prompted Israel to begin widening what is known as the “Philadelphia Corridor” – a thin Israeli-controlled strip of land along the frontier.
Army bulldozers began demolishing buildings in the border town of Rafiah to facilitate the enlarged patrol route.
Cynical ‘Palestinians’
“The Palestinians used UNWRA ambulances to smuggle body parts out of the Philadelphi route,” Mofaz said Friday during a tour of the Gaza Strip.
The body parts he referred to belonged to five IDF soldiers killed when “Palestinian” terrorist forces ambushed an IDF armored convoy hunting for weapons smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border Wednesday.
Thirty-six hours earlier “Palestinian” terrorists stole body parts, including a severed head, from six IDF soldiers killed during an anti-terror operation in Gaza City. Those remains were later recovered.
The “Palestinians” have made common use of both UN and Red Crescent ambulances in their terrorist campaign against the Jewish state.
Red Crescent ambulances inspected at IDF checkpoints have on numerous occasions been found to be transporting guns, terrorist bombs, and terrorists themselves.
Under the Geneva Convention, it is a war crime to use medical and rescue vehicles in such ways.
Apathetic UN
Mofaz demanded UN Secretary General Kofi Annan deal with the cynical use of UNWRA ambulances by “Palestinians” in acts of terrorism against Israelis.
But the world body has for the most part turned a blind eye to such abuses in the past.
Israel has over the past decade produced compelling evidence that UNWRA facilities and vehicles throughout Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip are regularly used by and provide haven to terrorist killers.
A similar trend exists along Israel’s northern border, where the southern-Lebanon based United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is supposed to prevent cross-border aggression.
Hizballah attacks on northern Israel, however, are carried out with impunity, and have even on rare occasion been launched from inside UNIFIL compounds.
When three IDF soldiers were attacked and kidnapped by Hizballah along Israel’s northern border in October 2000, “peacekeepers” at a nearby UNIFIL base stood by and watched.
Israeli retribution
Israel Friday began demolishing “Palestinian” buildings in the Rafiah “refugee camp” adjacent to the Philadelphi Corrider in order to widen the border patrol route.
IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon told Israel Radio that the APC destroyed on Wednesday was hit by an anti-tank missile fired from one of those buildings. Those same structures are also used as cover for “Palestinian” weapons smuggling efforts.
"There's a process whereby the first row of houses is abandoned and used for digging tunnels for smuggling weapons and cover for shooting," he said.
Government sources said Friday that Israel planned to widen the Philadelphia Corridor by hundreds of meters in the near future, meaning dozens or even hundreds of buildings in Rafiah would need to be demolished.