Jan. 2, 2021
The paramedic shut the door of the ambulance fast. The soldiers arrived on the run, rifles at the ready. One of them fired a tear-gas grenade into the air. A passerby muttered a curse at him. The soldiers came to a halt momentarily, consulting among themselves about what to do. But then one of them quickly made his way into the ambulance – a Palestinian vehicle belonging to the Red Crescent organization. The shouts of pain and terror from inside the vehicle, where a wounded man was lying on a stretcher, grew louder.
Inside the ambulance, a violent tug of war took place between the paramedic in his scarlet uniform and the soldier in olive-green, who entered through the sliding side door. The soldier pulled the wounded man toward him, trying to remove him by force from the ambulance; the paramedic pulled the other way, trying to protect the wounded person and keep him on the stretcher. It was an ugly scene, and the shouting reached a crescendo. Additional soldiers appr