Israeli military road closures in the West Bank delayed an ambulance transporting a critically ill pregnant Palestinian woman on July 27, 2026, resulting in the death of her fetus and leaving her condition severely compromised, according to Human Rights Watch.
The incident occurred as Israeli forces imposed extensive movement restrictions across the Nablus governorate following a July 24 settler attack that resulted in the deaths of two Israelis—including a soldier—and four Palestinians. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), these measures significantly impeded public access to health care throughout the region.
Paramedic Bashar al-Qaryuti and nurse-midwife Sabreen Atallah responded to the emergency at approximately 6:30 a.m. on July 27, picking up the six-months-pregnant patient from the village of Qaryut. The woman was prematurely in active labor, experiencing heavy bleeding, and losing consciousness. The medical crew placed her on oxygen inside the ambulance and departed for Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, located about 30 kilometers away along the main north-south highway, #60.
Palestinians are barred from using the road by Israeli roadblocks and checkpoints. Al-Qaryuti attempted to use the village’s only access road, but found the Israeli military had closed a gate. Subsequent attempts to use a dirt road through agricultural fields and alternative routes were similarly blocked by another gate before he managed to continue toward the Awarta checkpoint. The United Nations reported that Israel set up 120 new road gates affecting Palestinians in 2025, adding to hundreds of checkpoints and other restrictions.
En route to Awarta, the patient’s hemorrhage worsened dramatically. Atallah stated she had never witnessed bleeding of that severity in her career, which began in 2014. With the patient at risk of bleeding to death, Atallah assisted with the delivery shortly before the ambulance reached the Awarta checkpoint. The baby died soon afterward.
Video footage recorded by al-Qaryuti at 7:33 a.m. shows the ambulance stopped at the front of the line at the closed Awarta checkpoint. In the video, the driver states they are waiting for the gate to open to transport an urgent case to Rafidia Hospital.
According to the medical crew, two Israeli soldiers ordered the driver to turn off the ambulance. Al-Qaryuti stated he explained in basic Hebrew that the vehicle’s engine powered the critical medical equipment, but soldiers yelled at him to be quiet. The engine shutdown halted the vehicle’s oxygen supply, as the ambulance lacked pressurized oxygen cylinders due to chronic shortages, according to Atallah. Electronic devices monitoring the patient’s blood pressure, temperature, and blood oxygen level—which had dropped to 84 percent—also powered down.
Soldiers pointed their guns at al-Qaryuti and ordered him to open the back doors, Atallah said, and subsequently raised their weapons at her. When Atallah warned them in English that the patient was bleeding and at risk of dying, soldiers yelled at her to remain silent and collected the identification cards of the driver, nurse, patient, and her husband.
After holding the IDs for about 30 minutes, soldiers returned them, inspected a separate medical vehicle carrying kidney dialysis patients, checked those passengers’ IDs, and permitted both vehicles to pass through the checkpoint.
Al-Qaryuti arrived at Rafidia Hospital shortly before 8:16 a.m., capturing a timestamped photograph of the entrance to the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department. The journey took an hour and a half, whereas the trip typically requires 25 minutes.
The patient received three units of blood and underwent emergency surgery. An obstetrician treating her confirmed she was still recovering on July 31. The woman told Middle East Eye that she experienced deep sorrow over the loss of her child whom she had been preparing to welcome.
Medical personnel reported multiple recent obstruction incidents across the West Bank. Atallah stated she has been forced to deliver three babies inside ambulances during 2026 due to movement restrictions. Al-Qaryuti reported being delayed at the Awarta checkpoint with a cardiac arrest patient on July 26, and noted that settlers had attacked his ambulance five times, killing a volunteer driver in 2024.
OCHA documented several other medical delays in July, including the death of a 30-year-old woman on July 18 from cardiac arrest after soldiers failed to open an entrance gate the military had installed to her town of Sinjil. On July 5, soldiers at the Deir Ammar village entrance delayed individuals carrying an unresponsive infant for about 25 minutes, deploying tear gas and flash-bang grenades and forcing the responding ambulance to execute a 40-kilometer detour; the infant died. Additional ambulance delays occurred in late June and early July following Israeli settler attacks, which OCHA reports have totaled about 1,400 incidents so far in 2026. The World Health Organization (WHO) documented a March incident where a woman in labor had to cross a checkpoint in Salfit on foot after forces blocked her ambulance, among other incidents where Israeli forces detained ambulances at gunpoint.
The WHO recorded 987 attacks on and delays to health care in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, and as of May 31, impacting 673 ambulances and causing 39 deaths. OCHA reported that Israeli forces were restricting ambulances in 5 of the West Bank’s 11 governorates as of mid-June.
In response to inquiries regarding the July 27 incident at Awarta, the Israeli military spokesperson’s office reportedly stated that the claim that IDF soldiers delayed an ambulance at the checkpoint was false and that no such report regarding such an incident had been received.
Human Rights Watch asserted that Israel, as the occupying power, holds an obligation to guarantee Palestinians’ access to emergency health care and to protect medical transport, pregnant women, and children. The organization called on governments to impose targeted sanctions, suspend arms transfers, ban trade with illegal settlements, consider suspending preferential trade agreements, and support International Criminal Court investigations, including by executing its arrest warrants.
“Amid rampant attacks on civilians and mass forced displacement in the West Bank, Israeli forces are delaying Palestinians from reaching hospitals, including even infants and pregnant women experiencing dangerous labor,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch.
