A clerk sits at her desk at the Israeli Interior Ministry. Her job is to issue “humanitarian permits” allowing Gaza residents to travel to Israel for medical treatment. She peruses a request from Fadi Abu al-Sabah, a 35-year-old Gaza resident.
The clerk’s thoughts drift to the case of Wafa al-Bis, a burn patient from Gaza who’d received treatment at the Israeli National Skin Bank. While passing through an Israeli security checkpoint with her “medical permit,” Wafa was caught wearing a suicide belt filled with explosives. She was en route to blowing up the Israeli medical clinic of the same hospital that had provided her with first-class medical care and saved her life.
The Interior Ministry clerk focuses back to the application on her desk. One mistake in judgment could cost innocent Israeli lives. Yet sensing nothing untoward, she rubber-stamps the application: “Approved.”
Last week, Israel’s Security Agency (Shin Bet) announced the arrest of that same Fadi Abu al-Sabah. After a year of intensive training in Gaza in the manufacture of explosives, al-Sabah passed through Israeli checkpoints with his “humanitarian medical permit.” Then, smuggling a set of encrypted codes outlining plans for deadly attacks against Israelis, he teamed up with other Hamas operatives to set up a bomb-making factory in the West Bank.
This case of murderous conspiracy revealed another cynical medical abuse: A doctor in Gaza had been paid to falsify the “medical documents” that Fadi Abu al-Sabah used to obtain his humanitarian permit in the first place.
Terrorist Fadi Abu al-Sabah displays his smuggled plans for deadly attack against Israelis.
Fake Sugar Bags
Israel has always held by the highest humanitarian standards – whether setting up field hospitals in global disaster zones, water projects in Africa, or treating thousands of Syrians wounded in civil war.
Yet as Israel eases checkpoint restrictions for humanitarian reasons, some Palestinians repeatedly exploit these gestures to foment terror. One Palestinian woman, nine months pregnant, obtained a permit to enter Israel for medical treatment; her plan was to carry out a suicide bombing at a restaurant in Tel Aviv. (She was joined by her niece, a mother of four, in a planned double-suicide bombing.)
In 2004 a Palestinian woman bypassed the metal detector at a Gaza checkpoint by claiming she had surgical plates in her legs; she then blew herself up at the crossing, killing four Israelis.
Palestinians have been nabbed trying to smuggle bombs and suicide belts hidden in the most creative of places. At one West Bank checkpoint, a Palestinian truck was caught carrying six tons of potassium nitrate – disguised in sugar bags marked as “humanitarian aid provided by the European Union.” The chemicals were headed for terrorists in Gaza to be used in producing the rocket fuel that forms the core of Qassam missiles.
Yet despite such abuses, Israel continues to provide humanitarian permits for thousands of Palestinians annually to enter Israel for medical treatment.
Israeli medical team treating wounded Syrians.
Ambulance Abuse
Even ambulances, that hallmark of neutrality and non-violence, have been abused by Palestinian terrorists. Wafa Idris, the first Palestinian female suicide bomber, worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent and drove an ambulance to the attack site, with the bomb belt hidden in the ambulance. Her “medical credentials” provided easy passage through IDF roadblocks en route to the bloody bombing in downtown Jerusalem.
Ahmed Jibril, an ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent, was arrested while transporting explosives in his ambulance for delivery to terrorists in Ramallah. A suicide bomber’s explosives belt – holding 16 pipes and over 20 pounds of explosive material – was hidden under the stretcher on which a child was lying.
Imagine the following scenario:
A 19-year-old soldier is commanding an Israeli security checkpoint. An ambulance arrives, transporting a woman who is seemingly pregnant. The woman appears to be in pain and her husband is highly anxious. But the IDF has a specific warning that a Palestinian ambulance is en route carrying a terrorist and explosive belt for a suicide attack. It is a hot day and there is a long line of cars. The soldier’s commanders instruct him on a two-way radio to “examine each ambulance thoroughly until we find the terrorist.” To complicate matters, a news video crew is present.
The soldier has to make a number of critical decisions in a very short time. He knows that if he lets the ambulance through and it contains a terrorist, innocent people will die. On the other hand, if there is not a terrorist in this particular ambulance, and he delays a pregnant woman from reaching a hospital, the mother and baby could be endangered.
Ambulances, when used for military purposes, lose their “protected” status, and Israel is forced to counter with increased strictures. Ultimately, Palestinians cause harm to themselves.
Palestinians pass through an Israeli security checkpoint.
Systemic Corruption
To complicate matters, the media is unforgiving when Israeli security – in an effort to save Jewish lives – restricts Palestinians. Discussing the effectiveness of the Israeli security barrier in keeping terrorists out, Time magazine editor Richard Stengel lamented:
“They [Israel] haven't had a car bombing in two and a half years. And the sad truth, really, is that the wall with the West Bank has actually worked... the wall is functioning.”
In the meantime, Palestinians continue to abuse medical permits, glorify terrorists, indoctrinate children for terror, divert international aid to build terror tunnels and rockets, pay stipends to terrorists, and tolerate government corruption.
Until they reform this perverse culture, Palestinians will suffer frustration and despair. And Israeli security measures will continue to protect innocent lives against those who seek to harm.
(8) Narayan Desai, July 19, 2019 5:37 PM
Desperation causes irrational behavior
I wholeheartedly agree that these attacks are impermissible and inexcusable. Nobody should ever harm another person, especially under the guise of help. The main problem is that many Palestinians come from a community without much of a political voice, and they don't have much power to oppose the more radical members of their society, many of whom came to power due to desperation created by conflict/poverty. Israel needs to provide a supportive platform for rational Palestinians to speak up without fear of harm, rather than diverting efforts to increasing the scope of settlement and military expansion. It's a super complicated issue, but as the more powerful party in the conflict, Israel has a responsibility to try and support positive Palestinian voices. Ultimately, the goal should be peace. Yahweh or Allah, God is the same, and we are all humans in the end of the day. BOTH sides need to see this. Once again, I am not excusing Palestinian violence against innocent people, just that we need to examine why exactly they are so desperate and put forth solutions for everyone involved, rather than taking ultra partisan perspectives.
(7) Edward, July 14, 2019 8:31 PM
As Golda Meir said years ago, the only way this will stop is when Palestinian mothers love their children more than they hate Israelis.
(6) Yoni, July 14, 2019 8:31 PM
Arab hate
As Golda Meir has said, when the Arabs learn to love their children more then they hate Jewish children, there will be peace.
(5) Anonymous, July 14, 2019 7:21 PM
Missing information
This article would have been far more useful and informative had a number of facts and statistics been included. How many humanitarian permits a year does Israel issue for residents of Gaza and the West Bank to receive medical care in Israel? How many or what proportion of applications for these permits are rejected? Similarly, how many ambulances are allowed to cross into Israel from these Arab communities and how many are barred from entry? How often, or in what percentage of these cases, does a humanitarian permit result in the detection of a terrorist attempt. How often is a terrorist attack actually carried out under the guise of one of these permits? No question, one attack, even one attempt, is inexcusable. Yet how can the impact of such despicable tactics be fairly assessed without knowing the frequency of occurrence or the proportion of permit violations?
Alan S., July 14, 2019 10:14 PM
Does it really matter if such statistics were provided?
Your second to final sentence says it all. Even one unsuccessful attempt using a humanitarian permit would be enough to cause the Israel's to scrutinize every permit. It doesn't take a wise person to understand that until honorable Arabs put an end to violence from their brethren using these permits, than the extra scrutiny is well warranted.
Anonymous, July 16, 2019 11:23 PM
Agree on the need for scrutiny
Yes, as in so many areas, Israel must give very careful consideration to every situation that could possibly raise a security risk. That is true for any country. What concerns me is the conclusion that some seem to draw, judging by the comments and by some political statements within Israel, that no humanitarian permits should be issued at all. That's why context matters: If, Gd forbid, terrorist attempts or acts result from a substantial number of permits, then Israel would be totally justified in declaring a moratorium or even a complete halt to these acts of compassion. I'm not sure what the level would be -- one in five? one in
(4) Yisrael Bernstein, July 14, 2019 4:41 PM
What Halacha permits Humanitarian aid at the expense of Jewish Lives. JEWISH LIVES MATTER!! NEVER AGAIN!!
Please provide the Halacha requiring Humanitarian Aid to others that put JEWISH LIVES at RISK? When do JEWISH LIVES MATTER FIRST!!!!!
(3) Nalinaksha Mutsuddi, July 14, 2019 4:37 PM
It's highly deplorable
Abusing humanitarian aid in any form and from any quarter is deplorable. Anyway humanitarian aids should not be stopped. But it demands more caution.
(2) Shelly, July 14, 2019 3:12 PM
Humanitarianism?
Maybe Israel needs to rethink the good intentions of helping Palestinians with medical needs. Yes, a few may be legitimate but the risk to innocent Israelis is too high. A few innocent pealestinians who may die due to lack of humanitarian aid must be the price paid for saving scores of Israeli lives. Are we to roll the dice and keep our fingers crossed that the selected Palestinian patient is REALLY a legitimate patient? Sorry, the odds don’t sit well with me. Let’s practice some of those life saving techniques on our citizens!
(1) Sarah, July 14, 2019 12:26 PM
Wafa al-Bis probably didn't come up with the idea of killing Israelis. It was probably forced on her by evil people in her village who wanted it done and used her a a convenient way to do it.
Esther Cook, July 15, 2019 2:51 AM
Wafa's family demanded suicide bomb
I happened to read about that specific case of Wafa al-Bis. When she returned alive, her family rejected her for having accepted Israeli aid. They said they would forgive her if she carried out a suicide bombing.
It does look like these problems are all the other guy's fault--the Palestinians. But I have a Palestinian book on the second Intifada, very hard to read because the same irresponsibility on the other foot. Israel commits one atrocity after the other, while the Palestinians are only heroes....
Solzhenitsyn said it best: the line between good and evil runs not between nations, nor even between individuals, but right through every human heart.
What can you do today to delight another Jew or uphold our people by shining light for a goy?
Dvirah, July 17, 2019 1:40 PM
Clarity in Truth
What you can do for your own clarity is to take each claim, or claimed incident & look for independent corroborating data. I have done this for a number of Pal. claims and so far not one could be verified. Where any data was found, it did not accord with the Pal. version of the incident.
That said, I did also find some evidence of corruption or carelessness on the Israeli side in several cases. But overall the veracity of Pal. sources is very low; and the humanity of the IDF supremely high.