B'Tselem Research: Another Stillborn Baby, after Soldiers Deny Mother Passage

Yesterday morning, February 26, 32 year old, Samar Hamdoun, nine months pregnant, began to feel contractions. Hamdoun is a resident of the village of Beit Furik, east of Nablus. Her husband, Iyad Hamdoun called a local physician who examined her and determined that she must get to hospital quickly.

At around 9:00AM, the Hamdouns, along with other family members, left Beit Furik in a taxi and headed toward Nablus. When they approached the checkpoint at the entrance to the village, a soldier ordered them, using hand gestures and shouting, to turn around and go back to the village. The soldier did not allow the passengers to approach him and explain that they were on their way to hospital. The taxi's passengers, fearing the soldiers would shoot them if they got close, turned around and drove to Nablus on rocky dirt roads. The journey, which would have lasted ten minutes, had the family been allowed passage at the checkpoint, took four hours. On the way, Samar Hamdoun lost consciousness and began to bleed.

Upon her arrival at Rafidia hospital in Nablus, at 1:00PM, the doctors determined that the fetus had died as a result of placental abruption during the journey to the hospital. They delivered the child stillborn.

Despite IDF claims that the soldiers are directed to allow passage to Palestinians in need of medical care, research conducted by B'Tselem and other organizations reveals time and time again that the soldiers do not follow this directive. The IDF does nothing to instill it in the soldiers who staff checkpoints. Over the course of the current intifada, at least 23 people lost their lives after soldiers denied them passage at checkpoints. B'Tselem calls again for the siege to be lifted from Palestinian towns and villages in the Occupied Territories, a siege that, yesterday, caused another senseless death.