Palestinian newborns die in checkpoint delays

September 23rd, 2005 at 07:24 Björn Hallberg

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.

Fifteen pregnant women in 2004 and eight in 2005 were delayed at checkpoints in the Gaza Strip for 1 to 2-1/2 hours while being transported to a hospital by a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance, the U.N. Palestinian aid agency UNRWA 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.

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