Samir Ahmad, age 31, ambulance driver

I have been an ambulance driver for the Red Crescent for four years now. I am a resident of the a-Sawiya area in the district of Nablus, but because I work in Bethlehem I sleep in one of the rooms at the Red Crescent offices there. I go back to Nablus about once a month for two days.

I go out with the ambulance every day to take people to hospital and take them back home. I also work a few times a week at the new branch that opened about eight months ago in the village of Husan. The branch has a paramedic, two drivers, and two ambulances. It provides medical services to the al-'Arqub villages, west of Bethlehem. The ambulances from Bethlehem cannot reach these villages because of the checkpoints along the way that separate Bethlehem from the villages to the west. Since the beginning of October, there has been a constant military presence at the western entrance to Husan, from which ambulances exit the village. Additionally, there is a staffed watch tower there that used to be unmanned.

On Thursday, 2 October 2003, I was at the Red Crescent branch in Husan. At about 11:00 AM we received a telephone call from a resident of Battir, named Muhammad al-Bata. He requested that we send an ambulance to take his sick mother, who is 65 years old, to the hospital. She suffered from blocked arteries and since her condition deteriorated it was necessary to get her to hospital in Bethlehem urgently. I went out with the medic, Rami Naufel. We left the center of Husan in the direction of the main exist to the west of the village, which is the only way out towards the villages west of Bethlehem. As we approached the main road and were about thirty meters from the watch tower, I saw a military jeep and three soldiers. The soldiers were standing in the middle of the road. I drove closer to the soldiers and one of them motioned for me to stop the ambulance. I stopped, and the soldier approached the front door on the driver's side. I opened the door to see what he wanted. The soldier asked for our ID cards. He spoke Hebrew and I understood him. He asked where we were going and I told him that we were going to take a patient from Battir to the hospital in Bethlehem. The soldier ordered me to park the ambulance by the side of the road and wait.

I parked the car and we waited for about fifteen minutes for the soldier to give us back our IDs and let us pass. During this time, the soldiers prevented other cars coming from Husan from passing through. Then, one of the soldiers gave us back our IDs and told us to go back to Husan. I told the soldier that I need to get to Battir to take a patient to hospital, but the soldier shouted at me and said that the patient didn't interest him and neither did the work of the ambulance, and that we were to go back to Husan. We went back to Husan.

On Sunday, 5 October 2003, I left the offices of the Red Crescent in the center of Bethlehem, together with the medic Hussein Nawawra, to the branch in Husan. We drove to Husan through the DCO checkpoint at the entrance to Beit Jala. When we got to the checkpoint, two soldiers told us to stop. They checked our IDs and about two minutes later let us pass. We drove the ambulance down road no. 60 towards the main western entrance to Husan. As we drove along we came across a military jeep standing in the middle of the road. One of the soldiers signaled us to stop and without coming near the ambulance he ordered us to turn around and go back to where we came from.

I drove to about a hundred meters away from the soldiers and contacted the manager of the Red Crescent branch, Mr. Muhammad Samhaneh. I notified him that the soldiers would not let us pass. He asked me to wait until he contacted the Red Cross. We waited for about twenty minutes when the manager contacted me and told me that I could approach the checkpoint. He told me that this time the soldiers will let me through because the Red Cross coordinated it with the Israeli District Coordinating Office.

I got near the point where the soldiers were stationed on the main road. One of the soldiers came near the ambulance. I opened the front door and thought that this time he would check our IDs and let us through. The soldier came near, didn't talk to us, but raised his weapon and used it to push the door while he shouted "Go back to Bethlehem or I will hit you." I closed the door and went back to Bethlehem.

On Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2003, at around 1:00 PM, I took a kidney patient from the hospital in Beit Jala to his house in Nahhalin via road #60. When I got to the point between the Etzion intersection and the settlement of Efrat, I say an army jeep pull out of the intersection and start driving behind me. Within about two minutes, the jeep was within ten meters of me. I heard a soldier calling out and instructing the ambulance to pull over. I pulled over along the side of the road, and two soldiers got out of the jeep and came up to the ambulance. They told me to get out. When I did so, one of them asked me in Hebrew "Why are the numbers on your license plate unclear?" I told him that this is a new ambulance and I am planning to take it to a mechanic to have him repaint the numbers on the plates. The soldier went back to the jeep and came back a minute later holding a screwdriver. He told me to take off the license plates and switch the front ones with those from the back of the ambulance, because the front one was clearer. I did as he asked, which held me up for about twenty minutes.

Two days later, on Thursday Oct. 9 2003, around 9: AM, I was driving on the same road - the Etzion road. I was on my way to pick up a women who was in labor, named Nawal Takatka, from the village of Beit Fajjar. As I was driving I saw an army jeep about a hundred meters away. I kept driving, and the jeep got closer. I heard a soldier calling out and instructing me to pull over. When I stopped, two soldiers approached the ambulance. It was the same soldiers who had pulled me over two days before. One of them asked where I was going. I told him that I was on my way to Beit Fajar to pick up a pregnant woman who was going to give birth. The soldier looked at my license plates and asked why I hadn't fixed them. I told him that I hadn't yet had a chance to go to the mechanic because I had been busy with work, but that I would go in the near future. The soldier said "This time I'm going to make you wipe the dust off the ambulance," and he started laughing. Then he asked for my ID card. I gave it to him and he went to the jeep. I wanted for about fifteen minutes until he came back and told me to leave.

On Sunday, 12 October 2003, I was at the Red Crescent branch in Husan from the morning. At about 12:30 PM we received a call from a resident of Husan telling us that his wife was in labor. I went on my way together with the medic, 'Isma'il, in the direction of El-Karna in Husan, where the woman in labor lived. We got her in the ambulance and drove towards the western entrance to Husan. While we were driving down Husan's main road, we suddenly encountered three large blocks of concrete blocking the road. Because there is no other way to reach Bethlehem I called our Bethlehem branch and described the situation to the manager. The manager contacted the Red Cross and a representative of the Red Cross contacted the Israeli authorities. I waited behind the concrete blocks for an answer. In the meantime the woman was crying out in pain. The medic tried to ease her pain. About a quarter of hour later the answer came through and we were told to return to Husan. I turned around and after going about 150 meters, the medic told me to stop at the side of the road as the woman was giving birth. I stopped at the side of the road and went to the back to help Ismaiel. In addition to being an ambulance driver I am also a medic. 'Isma'il guided the woman as to the correct breathing and the situation in the ambulance was very difficult. About ten minutes later, during which the woman was crying and screaming in pain, we saw the head of the newborn coming out. 'Isma'il pulled the head and started to extract the baby. At this point, I returned to the driver's seat and quickly drove towards the medical center in Husan. The center is not equipped to deal with childbirth, but the doctor there attended to the woman and her baby. The condition of the mother and baby was good despite the danger to the mother's life during childbirth. We left the mother and baby at the medical center and returned to the Red Crescent offices.

I should note that the concrete blocks are still blocking the main road to Husan.

Samir Subuh 'Abdallah Ahmad, age 31, is single and works as an ambulance driver. Samir is a resident of the a-Sawiya area in the district of Nablus. The testimony was taken by Suha Zeid, at the Red Crescent office in Bethlehem, on 13 October 2003.