An IDF company commander was sentenced to 14 days in jail following an incident in which a pregnant Palestinian woman in labor was delayed at a military crossing. The soldier was also relieved of his command.
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The army said the soldier should have allowed the vehicle carrying the woman to pass into Nablus, and that he had violated protocol by delaying her.
The incident occurred last Thursday night. Muayed Abu Raja and his wife Nahil, of the Palestinian village of Kafr Kusra, south of Nablus, arrived at the checkpoint on their way to the hospital in Nablus but were stopped by the soldiers, who claimed they did not have the proper documentation to pass.
50 minutes later a Palestinian ambulance arrived, but was forced to declare the baby dead.
Raja told Ynet that the family was having difficulty recovering from the tragedy. "I've had people here from
the Red Cross and B'Tselem, and every time they want us to tell our story it just tears us up inside," he said.
According to him, once the couple understood that Nahil had to get to a hospital, they decided not to wait for an ambulance to arrive from a neighboring village, opting instead to use a relative's car, which was given a Civil Administration permit to travel between Kafr Kusra the Jordan Valley.
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