18.7.07: Seriously injured accident victim dies after police prevent ambulance from entering Jerusalem, June 2007

On 29 June 2007, Radi al-Wahsh was seriously injured in an accident in the village of Za'tara , Bethlehem District. A Magen David Adom ambulance arrived at the scene and wanted to take him to Hadassah Hospital , Ein Kerem, in Jerusalem . When it got to the checkpoint at the entrance to the tunnels leading into the city, Border Police officers did not let the ambulance pass, contending that al-Wahsh was "prevented entry for security reasons." Al-Wahsh died while the ambulance was delayed at the checkpoint.

Muhammad Abu Rayan, a paramedic for the Palestinian Red Crescent, who was summoned to the checkpoint to transport the injured person to a hospital in the West Bank , described the discussion he had with one of the border policemen and a member of the Magen David Adom ambulance team:

"I went back to the border policeman who told me that I had to transfer the patient to the Red Crescent ambulance. I told him that the patient's condition made it impossible to transfer him, and that it was absolutely necessary that the patient be taken to the trauma unit at Hadassah Hospital , Ein Kerem. The policeman said that was not an option because the patient was denied access on grounds that he was a security risk.

I went to the Magen David Adom (MDA) official standing outside the ambulance and told him that the patient was in very critical condition. I asked him, in Arabic, why they don't take him to Hadassah, and he told me that the Border Police officers won't let the ambulance pass. He added that the MDA team had asked the Border Police officers to coordinate moving the patient by helicopter, but the police said it would take too long to coordinate.

In a conversation with one of the MDA staff members, the blonde policeman came and pulled the MDA man away from me and started a side conversation with him. I think he was telling him that he was not allowed to pass information on to me. About fifteen minutes after I arrived at the checkpoint, around 10:25 P.M., MDA paramedics informed me that the young man had died."

Three days later, on 2 July, a Red Crescent ambulance from the West Bank, transporting a seriously ill patient requiring treatment at a hospital in East Jerusalem , came to the tunnels checkpoint. This time, too, Border Police officers did not let the ambulance pass. The patient was then taken to hospital in Hebron .

The ambulance driver, 'Abd al-Halim al-Awiwi, described what happened at the checkpoint:

"Around 3:00 P.M., a border policeman, approached us and asked about the patient's condition. He opened the ambulance door and looked at the patient lying inside with a tube for draining fluids attached to his chest. It was obvious from the appearance of the patient that he was in a very critical condition. The policeman was not convinced and said that a Palestinian ambulance was allowed to cross an Israeli checkpoint only if the patient was in a life-threatening condition. I emphasized to him that the patient was in a life-threatening condition, but he said "No, he can wait." I asked him if he was a doctor. He didn't reply and went back to the checkpoint."

The next day, the Border Police officers at the checkpoint allowed a patient to cross after he was switched from the ambulance that brought him to the checkpoint into an ambulance that had come from the Israeli side, which took him to hospital in East Jerusalem .

B'Tselem wrote to the Department for the Investigation of Police and to the Military Police Investigation Unit demanding an investigation into the two cases.