Heart attack death blamed on IDF delays
Palestinian family says Border Guard officers refused to allow ambulance into refugee camp to transfer heart attack victim to hospital unless convoyed by IDF jeep; man dies on way to Hadassah Hospital
Residents of the Shuafat refugee camp in the West Bank blamed the death of a man who suffered a heart attack last Friday on tight security procedures imposed by Israeli security forces.
Family members said soldiers ignored their pleas to allow an ambulance access to the camp to evacuate Omar Abu Kamel, 41, and held up a second ambulance.
Omar died on the way to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem.
Under security procedures set by the IDF, ambulances can enter the refugee camp only with military convoy.
Mohammad Ramzi, Omar's uncle, said Border Guard officers refused to allow an ambulance entrance to the camp. A Border Guard officer told Mohammad that convoying Palestinian ambulances doesn't fall under his troops' duty and an IDF jeep has to be called in to accompany the ambulance.
Dr Aviv Totnaor told the officer that his medical team is willing to enter the camp unaccompanied by soldiers, but to no avail. Assisted by locals, Totnaor entered the refugee camp by foot.
With the Israeli ambulance unable to enter the camp, family members called in a local ambulance to transfer Omar to Hadassah.
'Policemen pushed us'
The ambulance was stopped by a Border Guard jeep at the entrance to the camp, Mohammad said.
The ambulance was finally allowed into the camp. A scuffle erupted between members of Omar's family and Border Guard soldiers when Mohammad and his brother approached officers with a request to allow the ambulance to jump a long queue of cars waiting to exit the refugee camp.
"There were about 14 Border Guard policemen, and the officer pushed me and my brother Jawdat and shouted at us," Mohammad said.
Omar reached Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus around 8 pm. nearly two hours after the heart attack, leaving his family members wondering whether he would be alive had it not been to the delays caused by soldiers.
Ronen Bashari, Magen David Adom manager in Jerusalem, said an IDF jeep called in by the Border Guard officer to convoy the ambulance never showed up, forcing the medical team to enter the refugee camp by foot.
Bashari said however that as far as he knows the ambulance that transferred Omar to Hadassah was not delayed by Border Guard soldiers as it made its way out of the refugee camp.
The IDF spokesperson's office said Central Command Chief Yari Naveh appointed an IDF officer to investigate the incident.
