Posted on 09/22/2005 8:09:37 PM PDT by Alouette
According to a U.N. report, pregnant Palestinian women encountering delays in IDF checkpoints run a high risk of medical complications, death to newborns
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.
Delays in checkpoints
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 one to two and a half 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.
'Risky roadside births'
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.
Increase in home deliveries
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.
Every time I see that pic, I chuckle. appropriate post.
FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel/Russian Jewry ping list.
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Well, if fanatical Muslims would stop killing babies at Israeli pizza parlors and such, maybe this wouldn't have to happen.
They are blaming the delays on terrorists who have used the checkpoints to kill innocents....right???
See:
Oh, never mind.
Doc, it hurts when I do this. Then don't do that.
Where are the Palestinean hospitals? Maybe if they stopped using ambulances and faux medical credentials in their mad rush to kill jews, this would not happen.
I also shudder to think what would happen if a pregnant jewish woman showed up at a Palestinean checkpoint.
They care enough for their children to send the mothers to the Israeli side, but not enough to stop sending the terrorists through.
If the Palestinians would refrain from using women and ambulances to smuggle in bombs, these delays wouldn't be necessary.
Those aren't babies; they're just underdeveloped suicide bombers.
Hey, who is this guy? Is he a famous actor or just was a model for the pic?
There would be palestinian hospitals, but arafat put the money in swiss bank accounts and his wifes paris shopping sprees.
Ofcourse, thats all israel's fault as well.
Isreali babies risk dying because of Islamoscum, without checkpoints.
That picture is so perfect on FR. Because we're all doing and saying the same thing as we read this stuff, aren't we?
More blood libel. The U.N. is using the same "sources" which insist that the IDF put the HIV virus in Gaza's water (as if that's even possible), that Jews use the blood of gentile babies in Purim pastries, and that the Israelis have a ship which docks in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran to kidnap Muslim children and steal their organs.
You can turn your sets off there.
Oh dear, that Israel is just so awful. /sarcasm
Notice that these women are headed for the Israeli side because "that's where the medical facilities are." Well, there might be some larger and better medical facilities on the Palestinian side, if they'd recover the hundreds of millions stolen by Arafat and his buddies. Or, quit wasting money on weapons. Or both.
Any way you scratch it, these Palestinian mothers and children are suffering not because of anything the Israelis are doing, but because the Palestinians live in a barbaric and self-destructive society.
Not that the UN is about to recognize anything that obvious, or important.
Congressman Billybob
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