Sixty-one women have given birth at Israeli checkpoints since 2000 due to delays in getting through the checkpoints, and 36 of their babies died as a result, the United Nations said on Thursday.
The incidents took place between September 2000 and December 2004, the World Health Organisation said, relying on statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Palestinian women continue to encounter risky delays in 2005, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said in the UN report, prepared for the UN General Assembly by the Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Fifteen pregnant women in 2004 and eight in 2005 were delayed at checkpoints in the Gaza Strip for 1 to 2-1/2 hours while being transported to a hospital by a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance, the UN Palestinian aid agency UNRWA said.