Israel: Delaying Palestinian Ambulances Risks Lives

Click to expand Image Palestinians wait to cross at the Israeli Awarta military checkpoint on March 23, 2025, south of Nablus in the West Bank. © 2025 Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images (Beirut) – Israeli road closures in the West Bank on July 27, 2026, badly delayed an ambulance transporting a pregnant Palestinian woman in critical condition, with dire consequences, Human Rights Watch said today. The woman’s fetus did not survive an emergency delivery, and her life was further endangered when soldiers forced the ambulance crew to turn off their medical equipment for at least 20 minutes. From January to June, the World Health Organization documented 50 cases of delays in medical care to Palestinians in the West Bank. Israeli forces imposed even more extensive closures at checkpoints and roadblocks in the Nablus governorate following a settler attack on July 24 that led to the killings of two Israelis, including a soldier, and four Palestinians, and “significantly impeded” access to health care, including by delaying ambulances, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. “Israeli forces in the West Bank are not only