GAZA, March 2 (UPI) -- A Palestinian baby died Saturday shortly after
his birth in an ambulance stopped by Israeli troops stationed at an army roadblock near the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian hospital officials said.
Musa Abu Hmeid, chief of Palestinian hospitals in the Palestinian territories, said Anaam Saleh, 26, was taken by ambulance from the town of Salfit in the West Bank to Ramallah Hospital for delivery.
But Abu Hmeid said the army roadblock prevented the ambulance from advancing. After a delay of 45 minutes, Saleh who needed a Caesarean section operation, gave birth to a boy in the
ambulance.
The medical chief said the ambulance returned to Salfit's hospital to rescue the baby, but he died a few minutes after he was born.
"There are 30 cases of Palestinian women who gave birth to babies on Israeli army roadblocks in the West Bank and Gaza, and the babies were all
born alive" Hmeid said. "But the case of Salah was a special one, and unfortunately the baby died."
Meanwhile, 10-year-old Palestinian girl Inas Salah died from wounds suffered in an Israeli airstrike last week.
Salah was injured Feb. 19 by Israeli Apache helicopters in a strike on a Hamas office in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip. Two Hamas members were also killed.
Also, thousands of Palestinian mourners buried the body of Khalil Jemasi, a Hamas militant from Gaza City killed by Israeli troops on the northern borders of the Gaza Strip with Israel.
Palestinian witnesses and security sources reported that gunbattles between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants continued at Balata refugee
camp near Nablus.
Medical sources at Rafidya Hospital in Nablus said at least nine Palestinians were injured, one of them is in serious conditions.
