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IDF helping coordinate aid for civilians in Gaza Strip
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Gaza, IDF, Israel, Hamas

The Israel Defense Forces is coordinating humanitarian aid for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip with international organizations.

The IDF has 120 officers, part of the District Coordination Office (DCO), attached to command outposts. They deal with special requests from Palestinians for food and medicine, the evacuation of the sick and wounded, and move civilians from areas of fighting.

The officers have contacts with UNRWA, the Red Cross and the Palestinians, who frequently call the DCO themselves, even during fighting. The officers all speak Arabic and were trained in a special school for humanitarian issues operated by the DCO.
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"Sometimes we face a difficult conflict, because we're in a war zone, travel in tanks and take part in the fighting," said Captain Noam Muzrafi, the humanitarian issues officer attached to Armored Brigade 401. "At the same time our duty is to take care of the population and save lives."

Brigade 401 cut the Gaza Strip in two and is posted on the main road connecting Gaza City to the south of the Gaza Strip.

The "humanitarian" officers are authorized to permit civilians to move on the road in special cases. Commanders of the troops operating in the Gaza Strip have been equipped with maps and lists of buildings used for humanitarian purposes, so that the buildings will not be targeted by tanks or artillery.

However, according to an IDF officer, "whenever there's shooting at us, even from a building serving for humanitarian purposes, we fire back."

So far the officers have arranged some 150 evacuations of injured Palestinians to hospitals in the Strip.

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