The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 61 Palestinian women gave birth on Israeli military checkpoints in the occupied territories, in the period between 2000 and 2004 while waiting to be allowed through the checkpoints on their way to hospital.
36 women (60%) lost their babies after giving birth to their infants while waiting to be allowed to cross military checkpoints, WHO reported.ÂÂ
Also, WHO reported that Israeli soldiers are forcing the sick and elderly to wait, under the sun or rain, on the military checkpoints for several hours until they are allowed to cross, yet in many cases they were not allowed through.
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In the period between 2004 and 2005, 15 pregnant women had to wait at checkpoints, at least for three hours. One woman gave birth in an ambulance which belongs to the Red Cross, and another woman lost her child.
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Also, the report revealed that several pregnant women were forced to step out of the ambulances in order to be moved to other ambulances waiting on the other side of the checkpoint after the soldiers barred the ambulances from crossing; in many other cases, they were not allowed to pass which increased the number of home-birth cases.
