By Muin Shadid
TULKARM, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian woman who wasrefused access to a waiting ambulance at an Israeli militarycheckpoint died in her village in the occupied West Bank onThursday, a Palestinian doctor and relatives said.
Local witnesses said the husband of Fawziya Qabb pleadedwith soldiers at the Jarushiya checkpoint near the town ofTulkarm to let his wife get to an ambulance waiting to take herto a Palestinian hospital but they ignored him.
An Israeli army spokesman said he was unaware of theincident but the military was continuing to check the report.
Radio reports said the army had sealed off the area onThursday, fearing an attack.
Qabb's relatives from the village of Deir al-Ghosoon closeto Tulkarm said they called the ambulance, but they saidsoldiers did not allow it through the checkpoint to pick up the67-year-old.
"I asked the officer to let us cross but he refused,"husband Mahmoud Yousef Qabb said.
Mahmoud said that after failing to persuade the soldiersfor 20 minutes, he took his ailing wife back to the villagedoctor who failed in his efforts to save her life.
"She had suffered a stroke and needed urgent hospitalattention. She might have lived if she had reached hospital,"village doctor Abdel-Fattah al-Darak said.
Local witnesses and Palestinian security sources saidIsrael had tightened Palestinian movement at checkpoints in theTulkarm area on Thursday, forcing thousands to wait in thepouring rain.
Human rights groups say they have recorded several cases ofPalestinian patients who have died because of delays at Israelimilitary checkpoints since the start of the Palestinianuprising in 2000.
Israel says it allows humanitarian cases through thecheckpoints but Palestinians and rights groups say thecheckpoints are collective punishment.
Israel says they are needed to protect the country againstPalestinian suicide bombers.
Qabb said his wife, a heart patient, was in good conditionafter being discharged from hospital in Tulkarm earlier onThursday.
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah andOri Lewis in Jerusalem; Writing by Mohammed Assadi; Editing byOri Lewis)
