Muhammad Abu Ajamiyeh, paramedic

I have been a paramedic for the Palestinian Red Crescent for three years. Lately I have been working from the Red Crescent Center in Bethlehem , where I sometimes also work as a hotline liaison officer.

Last Friday [27 June], around 9:00 P.M., we received a call from a Za'tara resident who informed us that a person had been seriously injured in a car accident in the village. I immediately activated the team headed by the paramedic Ibrahim Nawabteh, and they went to the accident site.

At 9:10, Nawabteh called us and said that he had arrived at the site and that a military ambulance was there caring for the injured person. Ten minutes later, he called and informed us that there was also an MDA ambulance on site and that both teams said he was in very serious condition. He said the injured person was bleeding heavily from the head and needed to be taken to the trauma unit of Hadassah Hospital , Ein Kerem. Ibrahim said that the military doctor suggested calling a helicopter to evacuate the victim quickly.

I asked Ibrahim to stay on site until the Israeli team took the injured person to a hospital in Jerusalem .

After speaking with Ibrahim, I received a call from Dalia Basa. I know that she is in charge of coordination and liaison at the Civil Administration. She asked why the Red Crescent ambulance hadn't taken the victim from the accident site, and I told her that the MDA and military teams had decided to take the injured person to Hadassah because he was in very serious condition. I told her that we did not have the necessary equipment to cope with such an injury. I also mentioned that our ambulance was still at the site and that she could talk to the MDA crew and ask them to move the injured person to our ambulance if she wanted to.

About five minutes later, Ibrahim called and told me that the MDA ambulance had left with the injured person, so I asked him to return to the Red Crescent center, which he did.

Around 10:00 P.M., Dalia Basa called again. She screamed at me and said she would appoint a committee to investigate why the Red Crescent refused to remove the injured person from the accident site. I told her that the MDA team had taken him from the site and that he was in very serious condition. I added that our ambulance only left the site after the MDA ambulance had evacuated the victim. She replied "Habibee [my friend] Abu Ajamiyeh, the injured man, is forbidden from entering Israel for security reasons and he's a West Bank resident, so it is forbidden for him to enter Israeli hospitals." I replied that the patient was under the care of MDA and that she [Basa] was responsible for whatever happened to him. She replied, "Habibee Abu Ajamiyeh, my name is Dalia Basa and I am not afraid of you or of persons greater than you." She said the MDA ambulance had been ordered not to cross the tunnels checkpoint. She ordered me to send a Red Crescent ambulance to the site to take the injured person.

I asked the paramedic Muhammad Abu Rayan and his crew to go to the tunnels checkpoint to get the patient. Around 10:10 P.M., Muhammad notified me that he had arrived at the checkpoint and that the MDA ambulance was there. He said that he saw the victim and that he was in a critical condition and the MDA crew was providing whatever treatment it could.

bout fifteen minutes later, Muhammad called and informed us that the victim (Radi al-Wahsh) had died in the MDA ambulance.

Muhammad Hisham Muammad Abu Ajamiyeh, 25, is a Red Crescent paramedic and a resident of Hebron. His testimony was given to Kareem Jubran at the Red Crescent Center in Bethlehem on 2 July 2007.