Israel allows newborn babies to die at check points

Palestinian newborns die in checkpoint delays -UN
22 Sep 2005 16:31:33 GMT

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 (Reuters) -Sixty-one women have given birth
at Israeli checkpoints since 2000 due to delays in getting through
the checkpoints, and 36 of their babies died as a result, the United
Nations said on Thursday.

The incidents took place between September 2000 and December 2004,
the World Health Organization said, relying on statistics from the
Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Palestinian women continue to encounter risky delays in 2005, the
U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said in the U.N.
report, prepared for the U.N. General Assembly by the Geneva-based
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Fifteen pregnant women in 2004 and eight in 2005 were delayed at
checkpoints in the Gaza Strip for 1 to 2-1/2 hours while being
transported to a hospital by a Palestinian Red Crescent Society
ambulance, the U.N. Palestinian aid agency UNRWA said.

Of the eight blocked this year, one gave birth in the ambulance while
a second, suffering from problems in her six-month pregnancy, aborted
in the ambulance, UNRWA said.

Palestinians' access to medical facilities has been "significantly
impaired" due to Israeli security procedures at checkpoints and its
construction of a barrier in the West Bank aimed at preventing
terrorists from infiltrating into Israel, the U.N. Population Fund
UNFPA said.

Since 2001, UNFPA said it recorded more than 70 cases of women in
labor who were delayed at checkpoints, resulting in "unattended and
risky roadside births, causing maternal as well as newborn deaths,"
the agency said.

In some cases, pregnant women had to change from one ambulance to
another on the other side of a checkpoint when Israeli security
forces would not let the ambulance through, the office of the U.N.
High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

A growing number of Palestinian women have responded by having
Caesarean deliveries or giving birth at home rather than try to
travel to a medical facility, increasing the risk of complications
and maternal or infant death, UNFPA and Palestinian health
authorities said.

There were 8 percent more home deliveries in the West Bank and 0.5
percent more in Gaza this year, according to statistics from the
Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority were asked to provide
information for the report but did not respond, the report said.