Guest, here is a story of two Palestinian babies who died at birth because of the actions of Israeli soldiers. There are guilty on both sides in any war.

Lost hope in Mid-East conflict;    By Chris Morris; BBC correspondent, Jerusalem; Monday, 19 January, 2004

The metal gate is open when we drive through the Israeli checkpoint into the green fields surrounding the Palestinian village of Deir Balut. But at night it's always closed and the main road into the village is blocked off by lumps of concrete.

'There's a woman in labour' the driver shouted. 'Wait' came the reply.
"Don't fall ill here between six in the evening and eight in the morning", says Raad Mustafa. "If you do, you'll die". And he should know.

Last month his heavily pregnant wife, Lamis, awoke with stomach pains and contractions in the early hours of the morning. The village doctor said they had to go to hospital quickly and an ambulance was called to take them to Ramallah.

But what about that gate? In the bitter cold, Raad and Lamis approached the checkpoint at the edge of the village. The husband carrying the wife in his arms. From the grey observation tower came the voice of a soldier - "Stop or I'll shoot, don't move". And so they waited.

"Five minutes, then 10", said Raad, then half an hour and more - just standing there in the freezing wind. The ambulance arrived at the other side the checkpoint but it too was ordered to keep its distance.
Most roads are blocked to Palestinians
"There's a woman in labour" the driver shouted. "Wait" came the reply.

More delay - another half-hour. After a while, a military jeep arrived with a key to the gate. But the ambulance wasn't allowed through.

So the driver crawled under the bars of the gate pushing a stretcher. Lamis's condition wasn't good. He covered her with a blanket and tried to get back to his vehicle. But the soldiers wanted to check papers first and they wanted to check under the blanket as well - more delay - another half-an-hour.

The first little girl, Latifa, was born at the checkpoint before the ambulance had a chance to move more than a few metres. The soldiers weren't happy, they wanted the vehicle out of the way. "She was fine to begin with but then she started to turn blue, it was so cold," says Raad of his daughter

He runs his fingers back though his hair and runs the images back through his mind. Raad wasn't allowed to go with the ambulance so he wasn't there when the second little girl, Moufida, was born a few minutes further down the road.

You can't blame soldiers for being jumpy at checkpoints
By the time they'd reach the hospital, Latifa was already dead and Moufida lived for just a few hours. They now lie together buried in the village graveyard.

Lost hope in Mid-East conflict;    By Chris Morris; BBC correspondent, Jerusalem