Posted on 04/17/2002 8:26:01 AM PDT by RCW2001
NABLUS, West Bank, April 16 (AFP) - Mohammad Oudeh watched his 18-month-old niece die as he waited in vain to get her through an Israeli army checkpoint on the outskirts of Nablus for urgent treatment in hospital.
"Leila died at the checkpoint. We went back to the village to bury her," he said, her name joining a swelling list of Palestinians paying with their lives because Israel's occupation of the West Bank denied them access to ambulances and hospitals.
The victims include children unable to receive treatment for bullet wounds and kidney patients prevented from receiving access to dialysis, they said.
The problem has become critical since Israel invaded the West Bank on March 29, with the army shutting down whole cities and imposing strict curfews.
Leila underwent open-heart surgery six months ago and needed regular hospital treatment.
"We are suffering a humanitarian disaster. Dozens of people are dying each day from the closure of the villages," Mustafa Barghuti, head of Palestinian medical relief, told AFP.
"Even if a person has appendicitis he will die," Barghuti said. "The health system in the Palestinian territories is paralysed because the residents cannot get to clinics and hospitals in the cities."
Since the Israeli army launched its vast offensive in the West Bank, the movement of ambulances and Red Crescent and Red Cross workers has been restricted.
Ahmad Mahmud Abu Seif died in Jalbun, a village about 12 kilometres (nine miles) from Jenin in the northern West Bank, on April 12 because he could not get to hospital for dialysis.
"My father was going three times (a week) to have dialysis in Al-Watani hospital in Nablus. We tried to ask for ambulances, for the Red Crescent, but the army did not allow us to move," his son Rafid told AFP.
"We tried ourselves on the fourth of the month, the second day of the Nablus occupation. My father has medical documents explaining his case to allow him to move for treatment but the army refused to acknowledge them and made us go back to our village.
"We did that almost every day from every entrance to the city until my father became sallow and his colour changed gradually until we almost didn't know him.
"We were watching him die before our very eyes and we were unable to help him."
Omar Abu Rub said that when his brother Mohammad, 40, complained of chest pains the original diagnosis was a mild stroke but within a matter of days he was dead because they were unable to get him medical care.
"After the first stroke the doctor said he needed to go to hospital but there was no way to get there.
"My brother got another stroke on April 14. We tried to take him to hospital but he died with us as we were crossing the checkpoint in our car.
The head of hospitals in the West Bank, Mussa Abu Hmeid, said complete statistics of the number of people to have died because they could not get medical treatment had not been compiled, but the victims included a 12-year-old boy who was hit by a bullet in the Askar refugee camp near Nablus.
In Jalbun village, Fakhri Abu Al Rub said he tried all the emergency services when his mother had a stroke on April 12 but it was impossible to get assistance.
"We called everyone but they were forbidden to move," he said. "No one could move my mother to hospital and she became paralysed and her health situation is bad."
Although Jalbun, in a cluster of villages housing about 25,000 people, was under curfew, "we cannot move to any city where there is a hospiyal like Jenin or Nablus," he said.
If the Palestinians want better health care, they should use their money to build hospitals and medical clinics in their own territories instead of building bombs to kill Jews.
And if they want freedom of travel, they should stop the terrorism.
Poor little thing. Imagine those damn cruel Israelis denying a little baby the right to grow up so her parents can strap on a belt of C-4 to her so she could kill innocent unarmed Israelis and become a Martyr.
With all the likely candidates willing to assassinate that SOB, he should be glad he has a few safe days left in his ivory tower turned cellblock.
No way Arafat lives out the year.
Betcha dollars to donuts, he's toast, killed by an Arab.
July 12, 2001
'The AP today (July 12) corrected a false story it had sent out yesterday which reported that a Palestinian newborn died as a result of an inordinately long wait at an Israeli checkpoint. According to the original story, a pregnant Palestinian woman on the way to hospital gave birth while her taxi was delayed for two-and-a-half hours at an Israeli checkpoint, leading to the death of the baby. The original story, featuring authentic sounding details, claimed that the woman’s husband pleaded with soldiers to let them through, to no avail.-snip-
However, in today’s story, entitled “Relatives of woman who gave birth at Israeli checkpoint say they were not held up by troops,” the AP admitted that the story was false. Israeli soldiers manning the checkpoint had allowed the taxi to pass, Dr. Hamdan lied when he claimed to have been there, and Israel was in no way responsible for the baby’s death.'
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