Jordan Times
Friday, February 3, 2006
Palestinians train on
firefighting, rescue and first aid techniques
By Sheila M. Dabu
SAHAB — Clad in grey and blue fatigues, 24
Palestinian Civil Defence (PCD) fire fighters and emergency personnel gathered
near bright red fire trucks stationed at the Civil Defence Department's (CDD)
training school.
For the next nine weeks, Major Adnan Ismael Ayoub and his colleagues, together
with CDD staff, will be completing a training programme funded by the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
They are receiving training on fire fighting, rescue, first aid and disaster
prevention techniques.
Ayoub has never been shot at while on duty, but he said shooting incidents at
ambulances have happened in the West Bank and Gaza, sometimes leading to injured
people dying en route to the hospital.
The death of Red Crescent Director Khalil Suleiman in March 2002 underscored the
perils of medical work in the Palestinian territories as the number of
emergencies ebb and flow with the tide of political tensions.
Suleiman's team was responding to an emergency call after reports of wounded
victims in Jenin. Reasons for the Israeli army's attack have been disputed, but
according to B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the
occupied territories, the ambulance was attacked without just cause.
Even before this high profile case, B'Teslem had been documenting cases of
Israeli soldiers firing at ambulances and medical staff responding to
emergencies since the beginning of the Intifada.
A 2002 Amnesty International report also found that the Israeli army “fired on
vehicles trying to reach hospitals causing deaths and injuries, and doctors and
other health workers have been killed by army gunfire while travelling in
ambulances.”
In light of this challenging work environment, Ayoub said the PCD welcomed
training in Jordan, notably due to the historic relationship between the
Palestinian and Jordanian peoples.
“Most Palestinians have relatives here. You can see one people,” he said.
In the Salfit area near Nablus where he works, there are 32 PCD fire fighters
and rescue personnel serving 120,00 people with “simple equipment,” according to
Ayoub.
“One of the major causes of fires and accidents is the occupation itself, the
Israeli authorities and the Jewish settlers who sometimes start shooting first
at the Palestinians,” Ayoub added.
Ayoub acknowledged that the PCD does get cooperation from the Israeli
authorities sometimes, who allow emergency vehicles to pass through the
barriers, although Palestinian police are denied entry, which stretches the
PCD's capacity, he said.
According to Ayoub, there are two types of fires: “Man-made” or started by
certain individuals, and systematic, with “Israeli soldiers burning Palestinian
crops and plants to build Israeli settlements.” Since the crops and houses are
close together, Ayoub said many casualties have resulted from such fires.
The difficulties faced by the PCD are technical and political, he added.
“Since the Intifada, we have a lack of equipment and no training schools. We
have a difficult situation in the Palestinian territories because of the Israeli
occupation of our land,” he said.
The humanitarian situation in the Palestinian Territories has motivated some
members of the international community, including Japan, to respond with
assistance.
“After the uprising in Palestine, there were a lot of attacks and fires. Many
people suffered casualties and they needed some kind of capacity-building for
the fire-fighting and rescue personnel,” a JICA official in charge of the
Palestine programme in Jordan told The Jordan Times.
From 1997 to 2000, JICA, the Japanese government's aid implementing arm, has
provided fire-fighting and rescue vehicles and equipment to the Palestinian
Territories.
But even with the much-needed aid, the situation is far from resolved.
In Salfit, for example, Ayoub's team lacks the basic emergency vehicles: Fire
engines and ambulances.
“When we get on the road, the Israeli authorities prevent us from passing
because they say the fire engine is too old,” said Ayoub. “So we ask for help
from other PCD stations in nearby areas who have some cars, which also serve as
ambulances”, he added.
Ayoub also recalled a major house fire in Kerawa, north of Gaza.
“We managed to rescue five people even though we entered the house with no
masks, oxygen cylinders or the necessary tools used by firefighters,” he said.
In this year's two-and-a-half-month course, half the participants are from the
West Bank and the rest from Gaza.
The PCD lacked the facilities and training to use the equipment and vehicles
donated by Japan and requested training assistance, according to a JICA
official.
The CDD was the natural choice for training the PCD since Jordan had also
received similar types of vehicles and equipment. The Kingdom's geographical
proximity and commonalities in language and culture were also added bonuses, the
official said.
Colonel Zuhair Abed Kareem, the director of the CDD Training Directorate,
pointed to the goal of capacity-building.
“The CDD is giving knowledge of firefighting, rescue and first aid, and also
training future trainers so that the PCD can train its personnel later on,” he
said.
As for the project's relevance to Jordan, Kareem said it benefits the CDD.
“It gives us very good momentum to proceed and continue in our efforts towards
opening a Jordanian civil defence academy in the coming years,” he told The
Jordan Times.
“And the project is important for Palestinians because they want a high standard
of training as they are beginning to establish their civil defence structure,”
Kareem added.
“It's not only theory but they need to practise it in real terms and if they
don't have that kind of training, they cannot be very effective when the real
urgent things happen,” the official said.
“So they are focusing more on the practical side of the training and they
definitely need that kind of practice to save as many lives as possible.”
The programme runs for five years, with an estimated budget of JD130,000. It is
part of JICA's Third Country Training Programme, which began in 1992. Under the
programme, so far more than 400 Palestinians have received training in various
sectors, including judicial, legal, administrative and financial, the JICA
official said.
The training of Palestinian firefighters and medical personnel in Jordan “is a
long-term approach to develop the capacity of the Palestinian people in
humanitarian actions,” the official added.
Ayoub agreed.
“Our objective is to develop the PCD, get more help from other countries in the
world and develop Palestinian qualifications to help our people live in peace
like other nations.”