International Red Cross - Whining in War

I find the International Red Cross almost as worthy of derision as the ACLU. They continually screech about proportionality with no understanding of the term and they completely fail to understand what war actually is. This is an example that proves the point.

PARIS — The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it had discovered “shocking” scenes — including small children next to their mothers’ corpses — when its representatives gained access for the first time to parts of Gaza battered by Israeli shelling. It accused Israel of failing to meet obligations to care for the wounded in areas of combat.

In response the Israeli military did not comment directly on the allegation. In a statement, it accused Hamas, its foe in Gaza, of deliberately using “Palestinian civilians as human shields” and said the Israeli Army “works in close cooperation with international aid organizations during the fighting so that civilians can be provided with assistance.”

The Israeli military “in no way intentionally targets civilians and has demonstrated its willingness to abort operations to save civilian lives and to risk injury in order to assist innocent civilians,” the statement said, promising that “any serious allegation” wouldl “need to be investigated properly, once such a complaint is received formally, within the constraints of the current military operation.”

Because Palestinians were the ones victim to the combat, it must be Israel's fault that they weren't getting care, not that Hamas has been intentionally attacking Israel from areas directly against civilian populations. And where were the Palestinian authorities to aid their own people?

The statement said a team of four Palestine Red Crescent ambulances accompanied by Red Cross representatives made its way to Zeitoun Wednesday where it “found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses.”

In another house, the statement said, the rescue team “found 15 other survivors of this attack including several wounded. In yet another house, they found an additional three corpses. Israeli soldiers posted at a military position some 80 meters away from this house ordered the rescue team to leave the area which they refused to do. There were several other positions of the Israeli Defense Forces nearby as well as two tanks.”

Hmm. Maybe I missed something, but when did a tank become an ambulance? A military has first responsibility to do their job and themselves. Then comes the civilian wounded. Of course the NYT can't have any context for the statements. They don't bother to tell what the military position was for or whether they were in an active combat situation. No doubt they will continue to ensure Israel looks bad irrespective of the realities of a situation.

No doubt Hamas is so much more reasonable a group since their rockets are hitting Israel and they don't have to assist the injured or secure the dead. Funny how the IRC seems to be missing the relevance of combat situations.