JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service urged the International Red Cross on Monday to ensure the Palestinian Red Crescent did not allow its ambulances to be used for smuggling bombs and militants.
MDA president Moshe Melloul said his group's call referred to documented misuse, including an incident in which Israeli soldiers stopped a Palestinian ambulance last week near the West Bank city of Ramallah and found a 10 kg (22 lb) bomb sewn into a coat which was crammed into the mattress of a stretcher.
In a statement, MDA said it "requests the International Red Cross to intervene immediately in order to ensure that its protege, the Palestinian Red Crescent, strictly observe and respect the protective emblems, for humanitarian purposes only."
It also called on the Palestinian Red Crescent "to refrain from harmful use of ambulances and...emblems in terrorist activities" which harmed humanitarian services carried out by both sides.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it was conducting its own probe into the incident, which it accused Israel of staging.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said last week it was "shocked and dismayed" by the bomb incident and "condemns such abuse of an ambulance and of the Red Crescent emblem." It would not comment further pending an inquiry.
The ambulance was carrying a woman and three children at the time. The army said the ambulance driver admitted to trying to smuggle explosives to an armed group linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction in the Nablus area.
"We saw fit to make an appeal to show them they need to supervise their people," Melloul told Reuters. "It's not Red Cross policy and we are seeking...an understanding so there is no harm to ambulances or medical teams from either side."
Commenting on the Red Crescent's suggestion the incident could have been staged, the MDA statement said: "We find it inappropriate and unjustified of the PRCS to make such a public claim without any substantial evidence."
It noted that International Red Cross officials were present when the bomb was detonated by sappers.
The Israeli army has accused the Palestinian Red Crescent of frequently smuggling arms and militants past its blockades in an 18-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
The Red Crescent has in turn accused the army of targeting ambulance workers, delaying passage of the sick at checkpoints and access to the wounded since the revolt erupted.
Melloul said the MDA, which is not a member of the Red Cross, would continue to work in close coordination with Palestinian medics as they have during the uprising in which over 1,500 people have died and thousands have been wounded.