RAMALLAH, September 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A woman in labor walks beside her husband who speaks Hebrew fluently and asks for a permission to pass the military barrier in order to get in a car that will drive them quickly to the hospital but Israeli soldiers refuse and order the couple to return.

At a loss, the couple waits for a long time until the wife starts to give birth. She hides behind a pile of stones and delivers a baby girl, who soon dies due to lack of the necessary medical care.

This is not a scene of a movie but a reality that occurred with Rola Ashtiya, 29, and her husband Dawood, 43, Friday, August 29, at the military barrier to the east of Nablus, West Bank.

Several similar incidents took place and more than 30 Palestinian newborns have fallen victims since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada (uprising) on September 28, 2000, according to the reports of the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

“I have one girl and I often wished to have another. I was extremely happy when the doctor told me that I was pregnant and decided to call her Mira,” Rola said.

“I don’t know what happened. I suddenly felt I am about to give birth. I found nothing to hide behind except for a pile of stones. I don’t know what happened next as I fell unconscious and only got up in the hospital. I looked around but the newborn girl wasn’t there. I realized then that she died,” he added, while in a very bad mood.

“I tried to convince the soldiers to allow us to pass. Then, I heard my wife’s cries and hurried towards her to find the baby in her hands,” Dawood said.

“My wife was in a difficult condition. Her face was pale. I felt confused and didn’t know what to do. She asked me to cut the umbilical cord and I found nothing to cut it with except for a stone,” he added.

Dawood harried to the soldiers and told them the story. One of the soldiers came near his wife and on finding the baby allowed them to pass. On arriving to Refedia hospital in Nablus, it was evident that the baby died.

“The baby girl died because she was not born in the hospital,” Dr. Hesham Al-Na’na’a, head of maternity department, said.

“The baby was born 45 days before her due time. In this case, a newborn needs oxygen and special care but she didn’t have that,” he added.

“We hoped to have another girl but we lost her because of the (Israeli) military barriers,” Dawood said.

Such barriers separate the villages of eastern Nablus from the town and soldiers always refuse to allow villagers move from one place to another, rendering their life a hell.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health declared that 30 newborns have died since the beginning of the Intifada, as Israeli occupation forces prevent Palestinian pregnant women to pass through the barriers so as to go to hospitals and medical centers.

The ministry’s health media center said in a communiqué; a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net that “it has recorded more than 53 delivery cases performed on sand and stones and sometimes before the Israeli soldiers themselves. This has led to the death of 30 newborns and endangered the lives of their mothers.”

Palestinian Health Minister Kamal Al-Sharafy denounced the horrible Israeli practices saying, “What happens is a breach of the fourth Geneva Conventions and UN and WHO resolutions.”

Sharafy demanded the occupation forces to stop nagging medical convoys and health institutions and allow them to do their humanitarian duties towards the sick and injured.