Israeli Missiles Rip Into Medics’ Esprit de Corps
By Megan K. Stack
Times Staff Writer
07/25/06 “Los Angeles Times” — TYRE, Lebanon — In the burning haze of the missile strike, Qasim Chaalan thought he had died. But piece by piece, he noticed that he was still there, inside the ambulance. He could still feel his body. He opened his eyes, and discovered he could see.
He and the other medics were lucky: They had survived the blow of an Israeli missile. Dazed and slow, one of the men fumbled for the radio and began, “We have an accident…. ” He didn’t finish the sentence. A second missile smashed with a roar into the ambulance behind them.
Six Red Cross volunteers were wounded in the Sunday attack, and the injured family they were ferrying to safety suffered fresh agonies. A middle-age man lost his leg from the knee down. His mother was partially paralyzed. A little boy’s head was hammered by shrapnel.
Perhaps most dangerous of all, the attack blunted the zeal of the band of gonzo ambulance drivers who have doggedly plugged away as Red Cross volunteers. Young men and women with easy grins and a breezy disregard for their own safety, they have remained as the last visible strand of social structure intact after days of Israeli bombardment. (…Full Article)
Video clip – Ambulances are hit by Israeli forces in Lebanon:
A report from ITN, on the Israeli attack on ambulances in Tyre Lebanon (double click on play button).
