‘We’re seeing ambulances blocked by Israeli forces at checkpoints while carrying critical patients, medical facilities surrounded and raided during active operations, and healthcare workers subjected to physical violence while trying to save lives.’
An alarm goes off at 3am. Bleary eyed, Youssef* gets up. He picks up his bag, says goodbye to his wife and heads out the door. As he takes the first bus of his journey, he watches the already bustling streets of Ramallah turn into olive groves, date farms, and finally the dusty hillsides of the Jordan Valley. The main road from Ramallah has been blocked since October 7th 2023, when the ongoing violent escalation in Gaza first began. Youssef therefore takes a roundabout route across the West Bank, via Nablus.
Fortunately, this morning, the Israeli military checkpoint on the outskirts of Ramallah wasn’t staffed so he was able to move through without issue – leaving only two further checkpoints to get through before his destination. He travels up to Nablus as the sun rises, makes it through a second checkpoint, and changes buses.
Now a few hours after his 3am start, the bus pulls over and drops him at the side of the road. Up ahead, a line of cars is already winding its way down the road. Youssef walks towards the imposing concrete blocks and yellow gates of Al Hamra checkpoint. Still too early for conversation, Youssef nods at tired looking faces looking out at him from the row of cars, waving to potential patients. Youssef is one of the four doctors employed at the only health clinic in the North of the Jordan Valley, serving the approximately 30,000 Palestinians in the region.
Once he reaches the checkpoint, he holds his breath and waits for one of the six heavily armed Israeli soldiers to wave him through. A young soldier, probably only 19-years-old, nods him through without so much as a word. Youssef breathes a sign of relief and walks on 500 metres to where he’ll meet his next mode of transport.
Youssef is waiting for the health clinic’s ambulance to pick him up. They’ve had an ambulance for five years now, and given how dispersed the villages are here, it’s transformed the support they’re able to provide the community. On Youssef’s last shift, he referred seven separate patients to the hospital, and they were able to take them all in the clinic ambulance ensuring that patients received end to end care. The village council couldn’t afford an ambulance, so it was paid for by the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
As the minutes tick by, a military vehicle stops in front of him. Four soldiers get out of the car, and start asking questions and making demands – ‘What are you doing here?’, ‘Show me your ID’, ‘Where are you going?’. Youssef tries to explain that he’s the local doctor and he’s just trying to get to work. The soldiers force him to strip off and search him at the side of the road, in plain view of the cars driving past. Eventually, once showing them his medical ID, lab coat and stethoscope, they allow him to continue on his way.
Humiliated and shaken, Youssef sees the ambulance arrive, which picks him up and drops him at the clinic to begin his four-day shift, where he’ll attend to at least 200 patients.
Since 7th October 2023, this has been the routine for the four doctors working at the health clinic in a remote village of the Jordan Valley. They used to swap daily, with a doctor taking over from the previous one at 8am. However, now that the journey takes them at least five hours each way, they’ve had to change their shift patterns to four days on and one week off. They have to use the ambulance for the doctor’s trips to and from home because without it this journey would take even longer. With only one ambulance at the clinic, however, this means that on changeover days the clinic has to operate without an ambulance.
Whilst doctors around the world are familiar with intense shift patterns, few in Palestine are comfortable spending such a prolonged period of time away from home. One of the doctors is from Tubas, a village which has been subject to numerous Israeli military raids over the last month – he never knows what he might be returning to after four days away, saying, ‘No can leave their family in Tubas for two or three days’. Although living in the relative safety of Ramallah, Youssef tells us that his wife hates him being away so long.
Unfortunately, this is not isolated. According to a report from Medical Sans Frontiers, across the West Bank;
‘access to healthcare is severely impeded by a sprawling system of checkpoints and roadblocks that obstruct ambulance movement’.
While the health system in the West Bank is controlled by the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health, the Israeli government, as the occupying power, has a responsibility to ensure that civilians in the West Bank are not impeded from accessing their right to healthcare, under international law.
Health workers are also targeted directly. Between 7th October 2023 and 7th October 2024, the World Health Organisation recorded 647 attacks on healthcare professionals in the West Bank, resulting in 25 deaths and 120 injuries.
This has a particular impact on emergency treatment, specialist care and maternity care. The health centre is only equipped for certain emergency care and general healthcare. To supplement this, this there’s a schedule of specialist clinics throughout the week, including paediatrics, maternity care, and dentistry.
However, since 7th October very few of the specialists have been able to make it to the clinic for these, and there have been no pregnancy check-ups since the start of the war. This means that women have gone through pregnancies without seeing a maternity specialist, and then have to brave the arduous journey to the hospital in the city of Nablus.
A member of the village council told us of his recent experience of this, describing how he was unable to get the necessary vaccinations for his 2-week-old daughter, because of checkpoint closures at Al Hamra. He told us;
‘She is two weeks old and has already started suffering from the occupation’.
Despite the best efforts of doctors like Youssef, many in the Jordan Valley have given up on seeking medical help other than in the direst circumstances, with one man from Bardala even saying ‘If you get sick, you will die’. For many families, a trip to the hospital in Nablus is not worth the time and humiliation of going through the checkpoints. This means that community health clinics like Youssef’s are all the more essential, even with their limited resources.
They are, however, trying to expand their capacity. While we visited the clinic, we were told excitedly about an application they have made for funding to build a whole new emergency ward, and were shown their state of the art digital X-ray machine. This would have a huge impact on the community’s access to healthcare, amongst the increasing difficulties, and protect the vital medical access that Youssef and his colleagues provide. In the most challenging of circumstances, many still look to the future in hope. Please stand in solidarity with medics in Palestine by following the actions below.
Take action!
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Our friends at Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), Christian Aid, and Save the Children UK have launched Ally to Atrocities – a joint campaign demanding urgent action from the UK Government to end its complicity in the Israeli government’s violations of international law. Click here to access, use and share the campaign resources now.
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Israel’s escalating attacks on medical personnel and hospitals, and the systematic denial of Palestinian’s right to health across Gaza and the West Bank is a flagrant violation of international law. Use our quick template letter to send this eyewitness story to your elected representatives and urge them to use their diplomatic influence to pressure the Israeli government to protect Palestinians right to health.
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What is life really like in the occupied West Bank? Please take some time to educate yourself and your loved ones about life under occupation. This powerful new film by Palestinian and Israeli activists, Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham has won an Oscar: No Other Land.
What does international law say?
