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.
I am SHOCKED I tell you, shocked! {NOT}
Spank you ;).
Six suicide bombing-massacres averted by the inability of terrorists to smuggle explosive vests secreted in Red Crescent ambulances through Israeli checkpoints.
I feel no sorrow for "Palestinians". They are simply dupes for Arab nations who hate Israel and want to kill Jews.
Next time, choose your leadership more carefully.
Don't believe it.
"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.
More propaganda. Don't believe it.
"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.
Don't believe it. More propaganda.
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.
Don't believe it. More propaganda.
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.
Don't believe it. More propaganda.
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.
Don't believe it. More propaganda.
Because their career goal is Homicide Bombers. There is not a need for medical care or hospitals when your intent is to be splattered to smetherines and everyone surrounding you.
Verbally or not, assassins lie to their victims and stab them in the back. Assassins practice on the trust of their targets, and thus subvert that trust. The appearance is that false witness is OK to the assassin cult, and that official "establishment" Islam accepts that cult and encourages it.
The cost of accepting that cult is the distrust of anyone who is not within it. And if the consequence of distrust is truly manifest in the death of an innocent--which seems itself to be a contemptible lie in this case--if so, I say, it would be evil to blame the victim who was forced to distrust, rather than the perpetrator who induced it.
To the assasin, the putative inocent 'victim' of distrust is collateral damage. Even less regretable than that, an opportunity.
The Palis do not respect the rules of civilized war (an oxymoron, I know). They have used children as bombers and ambulances as armories. One woman detonated a bomb strapped to her abdomen that was designed to look like she was pregnant. When people do this, bad things happen to them. They should hope that putting up with a delay at a checkpoint is the worst of it.
See the following for some context for understanding this bizarre claim.
Arab Governments No Strangers to Fiction
Lies and Disinformation as a Palestinian Weapon
Arab national socialists and Islamofascists have studied diligently at the metaphorical feet of the late Josef Goebbels and done their best to master the technique of the Big Lie. Unfortunately, the Arab rhetorical tradition often gets the better of them and they ruin it by grandiose exaggeration (as here). That's why they need so much help from their admirers in the western press corps to get across plausible smears of Israel and the US.
Well said. However the media will turn it around to demonize the IDF and Israel and sympathize with the palis!!!
Go for it. We need more lunkheads.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.