Adla Abdel Jaber As-Sayyefi, 37 years old, went into labour at around 3am on
the morning of December 10th. Her husband rushed to his parent's house
concerned because Adla was due to go hospital to have an operation as it was
going to be a breech birth, but she went into labour too early.

They spoke to the Red Crescent requesting an ambulance, but the ambulance
was unable to reach their village of Tel because of the trenches and
checkpoints and suggested instead the ambulance and the family and Adla,
meet at another checkpoint of Beit Eba, the reasoning behind this choice was
that it would be less distance for the pregnant woman to walk - a matter of
meters, and not kilometers.

Adla's husband borrowed a car from the neighbors, and Adla, her father in
law Muhammad, mother in law, and her mother, went to meet the ambulance that
they were assured was waiting for them. However, when they came within sight
of the checkpoint a tank was blocking the path, and so in the dark and rain
they tried to attract the attention of the soldiers in the tank. The lights
of the ambulance were clear on the other side of the checkpoint and the
Muhammad beeped the horn, and the ambulance turned on its siren, but still
the soldiers in the tank made no moves. Finally, Muhammad got out of the car
and shouted to the soldiers that Adla needed to get to the hospital and to
let them pass - but still the soldiers refused to respond.

Too terrified to try to pass, 74-year-old Muhammad turned the car around and
began to return to the village, but after only ten meters or so Adla gave
birth; however the baby died. Muhammad who should have been celebrating the
birth of his grandchild, who was to bear his name, instead drove his
daughter in law and the baby's corpse back to the village.

Dr. Hisham An-Na'ana, the director of the delivery department in Rafidya
hospital in Nablus, which Adla was attempting to reach, said the fact that
the mother and child had not reached the hospital was definitely the cause
of death of the boy; "Breech births are not an unusual occurrence - and
normally a premature baby would not have died like this. This child died
because he and his mother were denied medical treatment, which was only five
kilometers away."

Munira Ahmed Kabaha, 30, from Tour Al-Gharbia near Jenin also went into
labour early on the 6th of December. Her husband, Muwwafaq, telephoned
Al-Razi hospital in Jenin, but was told that the ambulance could not reach
their village because of checkpoints. However they arranged to meet at
As-Shuhada junction, where his wife could be transferred to the ambulance.

They drove to the meeting point and saw an ambulance that had been stopped
by Israeli troops. Regardless of the danger Muwwafaq continued driving. As
he said later "I didn't think about the danger as all I wanted was to get my
wife and baby to the hospital."
The ambulance realized that these were the people who required medical
treatment and tried to negotiate with the Israeli soldiers, to convince the
soldiers to permit them to move the woman who by this time was in pain and
giving birth.

After this delay, the soldiers examined the woman and let her go onto the
hospital, however they were delayed too long and the baby died once it
reached the hospital. The troops detained Muwwafaq and Munira's sister for
some time before permitting them to return to their village.

Israeli troops regularly prevent Palestinians from receiving medical
treatment, and in the past two years 73 other Palestinians have been killed
because of this prevention. Many woman have been forced to give birth at
home with no medical assistance, others have given birth at checkpoints and
were fortunate to survive, as were there babies. These two newborns were the
16th and 17th babies to have died after Israeli troops, or checkpoints or
barriers or trenches, prevented their mothers to get the treatment they were
so obviously in need of.

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