Red Crescent denies bringing masked rioters to clash with IDF

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society denied transporting masked demonstrators to clash with Israeli security forces during a West Bank protest rebuffing a claim made by the Israel Defense Forces earlier Monday.

In a statement, the PRCS disputed the IDF’s account of what occurs in the video, saying one of the girls who can be seen exiting the ambulance was receiving medical care.

To support its assertion, it released photographs of masked demonstrators who appear to be the same protesters in the IDF video, one of whom who is being lifted into the ambulance.

It did not say what the other two masked figures, one of whom it said was also a girl, were doing in the ambulance.

The PRCS, a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, denied violating the umbrella group’s principle of neutrality.

“PRCS affirms that it abides and shall always abide by its fundamental principles in general, and the principles of neutrality and impartiality in particular. PRCS affirms that it has done nothing but discharge its humanitarian mission and provide treatment to those who need it,” it said.

In the video, filmed at a major junction near the entrance to the Beit El settlement, a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance is seen parked at the side of the road. A uniformed Red Crescent medic opens the rear doors and three masked protesters, carrying Palestinian and other flags, emerge.

The three protesters then head toward crowds across the junction who were facing off against IDF troops. The ambulance drives off to join other ambulances parked close to the main body of demonstrators, apparently to collect any injured protesters.

The IDF said the video was taken Monday, the fifth straight day of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The short clip did not indicate where the ambulance had come from before dropping off the protesters.

On Saturday, the IDF accused Palestinians rioters of using an ambulance as a shield to protect themselves while they attacked soldiers.

According to the military, the Palestinian rioters hid behind the ambulance as they believed it would prevent the soldiers from retaliating.

Photographs released by the military showed Palestinians on at least two occasions throwing rocks while standing behind an ambulance. The Times of Israel could not independently verify where and when the pictures were taken.

There have been daily protests by Palestinians in the West Bank following Trump’s recognition last week of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, while Israel claims the unified city as its indivisible capital.

In an address last Wednesday from the White House, Trump defied worldwide warnings and insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace a new approach was long overdue, describing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality.

The move was hailed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum. Trump stressed that he was not specifying the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city, and called for no change in the status quo at the city’s holy sites. The final status of Jerusalem is a key issue in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

In 2015 Netanyahu demanded an explanation from the ICRC after allegations that a Palestinian ambulance ignored wounded Israelis left for dead by terrorists who opened fire on a family as they drove through the West Bank, killing two of them and injuring five others.

The prime minister said Israel was prepared to take sanctions against the Red Crescent Society, a member of the Geneva-based umbrella humanitarian aid organization, for abandoning the ICRC mandate to assist all victims of armed conflicts, the Ynet news site reported at the time.

The ICRC said at the time that its paramedics had emerged from their vehicle to aid the wounded, but then an IDF ambulance arrived and soldiers emerged with guns drawn. The Red Crescent paramedics then left the scene, the statement said.

Stuart Winer contributed to this report.