BETHLEHEM,
May 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Palestinian baby boy died
Saturday after his mother gave birth at an Israeli army checkpoint
near Bethlehem, Palestinian medical sources told Agence France- Presse
(AFP).
Fadia
Mustafa, from the nearby village of Hussan, failed to reach the
hospital when Israeli soldiers denied her passage, allowing her only
through al-Khader checkpoint when her baby's condition deteriorated.
A
Palestinian ambulance took them to the French hospital in Bethlehem,
where the baby soon died.
"We
arrived at the al-Khader checkpoint but Israeli soldiers refused to
let us pass even though they saw the situation," Fadia Najajra,
23, told news agencies.
"I
was crying and asking for them to let the car pass," she added.
Najajra,
from the village of Nahhalin, southwest of Bethlehem, said her
husband, who was driving the car, had tried a different route, only to
be stopped at another checkpoint near the town of Beit Jala, news
agencies said.
"We
called a Palestinian ambulance. The soldiers surrounded the car and
watched me give birth," she said.
While
the Israeli army had no immediate comment, a Red Crescent ambulance
reached the scene too late to assist with the birth.
Nadallah
Najjar, a doctor, said the baby had died of a lung disorder 40 minutes
after arrival at the Holy Family hospital in Bethlehem, news agencies
reported.
Meanwhile,
eight Palestinians, two Israeli soldiers were wounded, and another
Israeli soldier was killed late Friday, May 24, when Israeli troops
invaded the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem and its refugee camp,
according to sources from both sides.
Palestinian
medical sources said fighting broke out when the occupation troops,
backed by about 10 tanks, tried to abduct Palestinian resistance
activists. Two of the eight wounded Palestinians were reported to be
in serious condition, AFP reported.
