Israeli West Bank restrictions delay Palestinian ambulance, deadly

Israeli restrictions in the occupied West Bank, imposed after a surge of settler violence, have had deadly consequences for Palestinians. In one incident, an ambulance carrying a pregnant woman was held up at a military checkpoint, and the baby she was carrying died before medics could reach the hospital.

The ambulance, driven by Bashar al-Qayyuti, was called to a small Palestinian village last Monday. A woman who was six months pregnant was bleeding and in severe pain. The crew set off for the hospital in Nablus, but their route was blocked by Israeli checkpoints. At one checkpoint near Nablus, soldiers ordered the driver to stop and switch off the engine. The medics were forced to wait at the roadside, with the vehicle's cameras recording the scene.

According to the ambulance crew, they tried alternative routes but faced further obstacles. "We've been trying every route to reach the hospitals," said al-Qayyuti. "At some gates, shots were fired at us. At other gates, settlers tried to damage our vehicles." The crew said they were stopped for at least ten minutes before being allowed to advance. When soldiers approached the vehicle, one had his rifle drawn. They demanded identification from the pregnant woman and her nurse, then told the driver to shut off the engine.

With the engine off, the ambulance lost power for oxygen and monitors. The crew were running out of fluids and could not move. They faced an impossible choice: try to save the mother or the baby. The nurse decided to deliver the baby to save the mother's life. Another ten minutes passed before the soldiers let them through. "I tried to do everything I could to save the baby's life," al-Qayyuti said. "I shouted at the soldiers and they threatened to shoot me. Even the nurse who was with me had a weapon pointed to her head while she was trying to treat one of the patients."

After passing an extraordinary queue of thousands of people trapped inside Nablus, the ambulance reached the main hospital shortly before 8 a.m. Doctors confirmed that the mother's life was saved, but the baby was placed in a box. The baby had died.

The Israeli military denied the incident. A spokesperson told Sky News that the claim that IDF soldiers delayed an ambulance at the Awadah checkpoint is false, adding that no such report was received from the Palestinian side. But the video evidence from the ambulance crew contradicts this. The director of the Rafidya hospital and the doctor who treated the woman said delays like these dramatically increase the chances of complications and death.

The restrictions on movement were introduced after the deaths of two Israelis last week. They were killed in a confrontation in the Palestinian village of Tel, when a group of armed settlers entered the community. Four local people were also killed. Attacks by settlers on Palestinian villages have been rising, and the British government minister for the Middle East has described them as "appalling." He called on the Israeli government to protect Palestinians and take meaningful action to prevent and prosecute settler violence.

The Israeli outpost of Havat Gilad, deep inside the occupied West Bank, is viewed with fear by its Palestinian neighbours. Last weekend saw a wave of settler attacks on Palestinians in the surrounding area after a security guard from the outpost was killed during clashes nearby. One resident, Yehuda Shimon, a lawyer who represents Israelis accused of violence against Palestinians, told the BBC that revenge was justified. "One Jewish life is ten million," he said. "Because God chooses us." These views are rejected by many Israelis, but they help explain the growing violence in the West Bank, where many extremist settlers see the land as given to them by God.

The United Nations says at least 12 Palestinians were killed by settlers during attacks in the West Bank this year. The latest incident shows how Israeli restrictions, meant to respond to settler violence, are themselves causing further suffering and death.