14 February 2002
Use of ambulances and medical vehicles by Palestinian terrorist organizations
(Communicated by the IDF Spokesman)
©2002 Reuters/Abed Omar Qusini 
Palestinian ambulances used to block a street in Tulkarem (March 8, 2002)
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In recent days Israeli security forces have witnessed an increasing
use of ambulances and and medical vehicles by terrorist
organizations. The terrorists are working on the premise that these
vehicles do not undergo thorough examinations when they pass through
IDF roadblocks and checkpoints.
The most prominent example of this phenomenon is the apparent use of
a medical vehicle or medical accreditation to help carry out the
suicide terror attack on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem on January 27. The
woman suicide bomber, Wafa Idris, a resident of the Amari refugee
camp near Ramallah, worked as a medical secretary for the Palestinian
Red Crescent.
The investigation indicates that Idris was sent to commit this
suicide attack by Mohammed Hababa, a Tanzim operative and ambulance
driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent. Hababa is a resident of the
Beit-Iksa village, in the Ramallah area.
Among the group that planned the attack was Munzar Noor, a resident
of the town of Anabta near Tulkarm, who also works for the Red
Crescent in Ramallah. Noor is currently being questioned by the
Palestinian security services.
Israeli security officials do not yet have a clear picture of how
Idris made her way from Ramallah to Jerusalem. However, investigators
believe that Red Crescent documentation held by the suicide bomber
and her accomplices, and perhaps even a Red Crescent vehicle, helped
them through IDF roadblocks and eased the checks they had to undergo.
This is not the first incident in which ambulances have been used by
terrorist organizations. Last October, Israeli security forces
arrested Nidal Nazal, a Hamas operative from Kalkilya, brother of
Natzar Nazal, one of the leaders of the Hamas in the city. Nidal
Nazal worked as an ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent
and there is information indicating that Nazal exploited his
relatively easy movement around the West Bank towns as an ambulance
driver to serve as a messenger between Hamas headquarters in the
various towns.
The increasing use of medical personnel by terrorist organizations to
by-pass checks at IDF blockades underscores the need to carry out
thorough searches in Palestinian medical and evacuation vehicles,
despite the inconveneince and hardship involved. This needs to be
done to ensure that ambulances will not be used by terrorist
organizations to smuggle terrorists or weapons into Israel.