‘Shoot me, Just let my son pass’: Final moments of Palestinian Ahmad Zaid
A three-month-old boy’s birth certificate and death certificate were issued on the same day, after Israeli forces blocked his family from reaching an ambulance at
A three-month-old boy’s birth certificate and death certificate were issued on the same day, after Israeli forces blocked his family from reaching an ambulance at a West Bank checkpoint. Deir Ammar refugee camp, occupied West Bank – Sunday morning began with the kind of small milestones families cherish in Deir Ammar refugee camp, northwest of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. That morning, three-month-old Ahmad Zaid drank more milk than usual, while his father, Maarouf Zaid, picked up his birth certificate in Ramallah. The family was preparing for Ahmad’s first outing: A day trip to Jericho with his sisters and cousins the following day. By afternoon, those ordinary moments had turned into a race against time to save Ahmad’s life. His mother, Yasmine Zaid, found Ahmad unresponsive and rushed him to a nearby medical centre, where staff began efforts to revive him as an ambulance was called to transfer him to a hospital in Ramallah. However, a locked Israeli gate on the road between Deir Ammar and Ramallah blocked the ambulance’s route. The plan was to drive Ahmad to the gate, where medical staff would carry him across on foot with his oxygen mask and transfer him to the waiting ambulance just a few steps away. But the plan collapsed when they found Israeli soldiers stationed there. Maarouf, returning from Ramallah, pleaded with them to let his critically ill infant pass, but they refused to open the gate, and the family were blocked from crossing on foot.
“They yelled at us to get back,” Maarouf’s sister-in-law, Fatima al-Abd Khalil, told Al Jazeera. “They were angry and said they would shoot us. When they saw the boy, they paused. Then they became more violent.” In a desperate attempt to save his son, Maarouf carried Ahmad towards the soldiers, his oxygen mask slipping off, and pleaded with them to let him pass. “My son is going to die. Shoot me, just let my son pass,” Khalil said about Maarouf. Soldiers responded by firing tear gas and stun grenades, forcing the family to retreat to their car. They were forced to turn around and drive along long and winding dirt roads to reach the ambulance. By the time Ahmad was in the ambulance at 3:20pm, it was too late. He was pronounced dead en route to the hospital. On the same day Maarouf received Ahmad’s birth certificate, he went to collect his son’s death certificate from Ramallah. ‘It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last’ Residents say the Deir Ammar military gate was closed indefinitely after Israel’s war with Iran began in late February, isolating roughly 18,000 people across three villages from Ramallah’s services. For families here, the closure has become part of everyday life. “At least open the gate when someone is sick, when someone is about to die,” Yasmine said. Khalil said Ahmad’s death is part of a wider reality faced by Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
The BriefWire