🚨Ongoing Nablus Closure Paralyzes Emergency Medical Services – Women Forced to Give Birth in Ambulances, Dialysis Patients Stranded at Checkpoints New information collected by PHRI points to a sharp deterioration in access to healthcare as the ongoing military closure of the Nablus area continues to disrupt emergency medical services. Abu Musa, an ambulance driver and paramedic from the village of Aqraba, told PHRI on Sunday morning that all entrances to Nablus have remained completely closed since 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. As a result, neither ambulances nor private vehicles have been able to pass. While most checkpoints across the occupied West Bank reopened overnight, the Nablus area remains under complete closure. According to information received by PHRI, two women were forced to give birth inside ambulances after being unable to reach a hospital. A third woman delivered at the clinic in Aqraba after medical teams were unable to evacuate her for hospital care. In another incident, an ambulance attempting to transport a patient through the area of a nearby Israeli settlement was forced to turn back after being denied passage. PHRI has also received reports that dialysis patients remain stranded at checkpoints- some inside ambulances and others in private vehicles - unable to reach the life-sustaining treatment they depend on. According to Abu Musa, emergency medical transport across the area has effectively ground to a halt, with ambulance crews increasingly unable to reach patients or evacuate the wounded as the closure continues.

Last week, after two and a half years of ongoing delay by both the state and Israel’s Supreme Court, the High Court of Justice accepted the joint petition we filed, led by the @acrionline and joined by Physicians for Human Rights Israel, @HaMokedRights and @Gisha_Access . The Court ordered the Israeli prison authorities to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) full access to detainees and prisoners, access to information regarding them, and access to detention facilities, including private meetings with the detainees themselves. We welcome this important decision, even though it comes after an unacceptable delay. Visits by the ICRC to places of detention are essential, and preventing them constitutes an ongoing violation that should have ended long ago. Such visits are critical not only for ensuring independent and reliable monitoring, but also for preventing torture, abuse, and life-threatening medical neglect. Under the Geneva Conventions, the @ICRC has a legal mandate to visit prisoners of war and other detainees in order to assess detention conditions and ensure humane treatment. Today, more than 9,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli detention facilities. Approximately half of them are held without charge and without fair legal proceedings. As we have repeatedly documented, thousands of these detainees are being held under horrific conditions characterized by systematic torture, starvation, and denial of medical care as a matter of declared policy. The denial of ICRC access has contributed to an environment in which widespread and systematic abuse and mistreatment have flourished. We call on the Israeli authorities to implement the Court’s ruling promptly and without further delay.