Newborns dying at checkpoints

Sixty-one women have given birth at Israeli checkpoints since 2000 because of delays in getting through the security posts, and 36 of their babies died as a result, the United Nations says.

The incidents took place between September 2000 and last December, the World Health Organisation said, based on statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Palestinian women continue to encounter risky delays, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said in the UN report, prepared for the UN General Assembly by the Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Fifteen pregnant women last year and eight this year were delayed at checkpoints in the Gaza Strip for one to 2 1/2 hours while being transported to a hospital by a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance, the UN Palestinian aid agency UNRWA said.

Of the eight blocked this year, one gave birth in the ambulance and a second, suffering from problems in her six-month pregnancy, aborted in the ambulance.

Palestinians' access to medical facilities has been significantly impaired because of Israeli security procedures at checkpoints and its construction of a barrier in the West Bank aimed at preventing terrorists from infiltrating into Israel, the UN Population Fund UNFPA said.

In some cases, pregnant women had to change ambulances on the other side of a checkpoint when Israeli security forces would not let the ambulance through.

A growing number of Palestinian women had responded by having caesareans or giving birth at home rather than try to travel to a medical facility, increasing the risk of complications and maternal or infant death.

- Reuters