Palestinian paramedics fear Gaza dangers will spread to West Bank
Al Jazeera
After Israel kills more than 350 medical workers in Gaza, paramedics in the West Bank describe the threats they face.
Hebron, occupied West Bank – In his 25 years as a paramedic, Jawdat al-Muhtaseb has worked during fraught times, from the second Intifada to the heightened tensions in 2015 and then to the current situation, where the ripple effect of Israel’s war on Gaza led to an increase in deadly Israeli violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The 46-year-old Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) medic has been shot three times but it is the images he sees every night on his television from Gaza that have been hardest to deal with psychologically.
Tension continues to rise in the West Bank, where at least 433 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war on Gaza on October 7, including more than 116 children, mostly as a result of Israeli raids. And al-Muhtaseb cannot escape the thought that the devastation he sees in Gaza will soon be the reality where he is.
His family is just as worried.
al-Muhtaseb’s eldest child, eight-year-old Muhammad, asks if they will ever be in a situation where al-Muhtaseb will have to rescue them from their bombed-out home, like the images he sees from Gaza. Six-year-old Saba asks al-Muhtaseb what his reaction would be if he saw her and her two siblings dead.
