Palestinian toddler almost dies due to Israeli checkpoint

Thursday September 04, 2008 18:02 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

According to local sources, an 18-month old child from Susiya almost died while on his way to the Al Er Demat Hospital due to an Israeli checkpoint that prolonged his journey.

Israeli checkpoint

The child, known only as 'Omar', was suffering from a debilitating fever that caused his tongue to swell and fall back into his mouth, blocking his windpipe. He began to suffocate, and his family put him in the car and started to rush to the hospital. Normally, the trip to the hospital would take five minutes, but an Israeli checkpoint installed on the road 8 years ago makes delays inevitable.

When the family saw the lines at the checkpoint, they knew from past experience (their own and many others') that the Israeli soldiers would not allow a special exception due to the life and death situation they were facing, and Omar would surely die.

So they took off on a bumpy, undeveloped, unpaved side road in order to avoid the checkpoint and get to the hospital in time. Luckily, Omar's uncle managed to pry open the feverish boys mouth and pull his tongue forward during the bumpy and treacherous trip, allowing him to take some breath in, and probably saving his life.

A similar incident ended fatally last year in the neighboring town of Tuwani as a 14 year old girl died from suffocation on the way to the hospital.

These two incidents are only examples of problems caused by the restriction of movement that Israel has imposed on the Palestinian population.

In 2007 the number of permanent checkpoints averaged 102 a month. On top of this, the army sets up dozens of temporary “flying” checkpoints every week. In addition, Israel has blocked access to severel main roads.

The system of restrictions on Palestinian movement, enables Israel to designate some of the roads in the West Bank for only the use of Israelis, mainly settlers living in the West Bank. Israel prohibits Palestinian vehicles from even crossing certain roads. Palestinians are forbidden to use, or are restricted in their use of, more than 300 kilometers of roads in the West Bank.

jerusalem | the wall | news report saed at imemc dot org