Ramallah, 15-02-08: Fawziya Qabb, a 67-year-old Palestinian woman, died today in her village of Deir al-Ghosoon near Tulkarem after suffering a heart attack and being denied access to a hospital. Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, Secretary General of the Paletinian National Initiative, declared “the Israeli policy of closure and checkpoints in the West Bank kills innocent Palestinians such as Fawziya and is collective punishment. It is illegal under international law and must stop.”
Fawziya’s relatives called an ambulance after her stroke and her husband, Mahmoud Yousef Qabb took her to the Jarushiya checkpoint where they were blocked. After pleading with the soldiers for 20 minutes to let his wife cross to reach the ambulance, Mahmoud took her back to the village’s doctor, who could not save her life. The doctor, Abdel-Fattah al-Darak, declared "She had suffered a stroke and needed urgent hospital attention. She might have lived if she had reached the hospital."
Dr. Barghouthi urged the international community to meet its obligations as High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention and to pressure Israel to reverse the measures of collective punishment imposed on the Palestinian people, in the West Bank and even more urgently in Gaza which is under an inhumane siege.