text: The Wounded and Sick
  military authorities must take the greatest care to remove all distinctive emblems as soon as the ground
  transport or aircraft are no longer employed as medical transport (see GWS, arts. 35, 36).
  MEDICAL CARE PROVIDED BY IMPARTIAL HUMANITARIAN
  ORGANIZATIONS
  4-39. Impartial humanitarian organizations serve an important function in armed conflict, in particular with
  respect to the provision of medical care. As noted above in this Chapter, the United States is a party to a
  number of treaties that address the protection of medical care during armed conflict. In addition, the United
  States has long supported the fundamental guarantees in Additional Protocol II for the protection of and
  appropriate care for the wounded and sick during non-international armed conflicts (Secretary of Defense
  Memorandum, “Principles Related to the Protection of Medical Care Provided by Impartial Humanitarian
  Organizations During Armed Conflict,” October 3, 2016).
  4-40. As with military medical units, the following principles related to the protection of medical care
  provided by impartial humanitarian organizations during international or non-international armed conflict
  apply and must be respected by all parties to the an armed conflict:
  * Medical care during armed conflict is an activity that is fundamentally of a neutral, humanitarian,
  and non-combat character. Ensuring that medical care during armed conflict is protected requires
  parties refrain from acts that undermine its protection, and take affirmative steps to distinguish
  medical care from activities of a combatant character.
  * All wounded and sick, whether or not they have taken part in the armed conflict, must be respected
  and protected. The wounded and sick are persons placed hors de combat by sickness and wound.
  They must not be made the object of attack. Combatants must not use the presences or movement
  of the wounded and sick to attempt to make certain points or areas immune from seizure; to shield
  military objectives from attack; or otherwise shield or favor one’s own military operations or to
  impede the adversary’s military operations.
  * Whenever circumstances permit, and particularly after an engagement, all possible measure shall
  be taken, without delay, to search for and collect the wounded and sick, to protect them from
  pillage and ill-treatment, and to ensure their adequate care.
  * In all circumstances, the wounded and sick shall be treated humanely without adverse distinction
  founded on race, color, religion or belief, se, birth wealth, political opinion, and any other similar
  criteria.
  * The wounded and sick shall receive, to the fullest extent practicable and with the least possible
  delay, the medical care and attention required by their condition. There shall be no distinction
  among them founded on any grounds other than medical ones.
  4-41. Impartial humanitarian organizations may offer their services to any of the parties to the conflict. States
  should not arbitrarily withhold their consent to the activities of humanitarian organizations. Where a State
  has accepted the services of an impartial humanitarian organization, it must not regard such services,
  including the provision of medical care, as unlawful and subject to punishment. If a State does withhold its
  consent to the activities of the humanitarian organization and that organization enters the theater of conflict
  anyway, it does so at its own peril.
  4-42. Personnel, units, transports, and facilities belonging to impartial humanitarian organizations providing
  medical care shall be respected and protected. Such personnel, units, transports, and facilities of impartial
  humanitarian organizations are those that are exclusively engaged in humanitarian functions. Such
  personnel, units, transports, and facilities must not be made the object of attack or unnecessarily prevented
  from discharging their proper functions. The protection to which such units (including units composed of
  personnel and facilities) and transports are entitled shall not cease unless they are used to commit hostile acts
  outside their humanitarian function. Protection may, however, cease only after a warning has been given
  setting, whenever appropriate, a reasonable time-limit, and after such warning has remained unheeded. Any
  attack must comply with all applicable rules and principles of LOAC, such as the prohibition on attacks that
  are expected to cause excessive incidental harm and the requirement to take feasible precautions in
  conducting the attack. Combatants must not use the presence or movement of such personnel, units,
  transports, and facilities to attempt to make certain points or areas immune from seizure or attack; to shield