JERUSALEM / Anadolu

The Israeli organization Physicians for Human Rights said on Friday that the Israeli army's raid on a hospital in Nablus, along with widespread closures in the occupied West Bank, is hindering the work of Palestinian medical teams and preventing ambulances from reaching patients and the wounded.

The organization added in a statement received by Anadolu that Israeli forces stormed Nablus Specialized Hospital while searching for the body of a killed Palestinian, causing chaos inside the hospital and affecting medical services.

It explained that ambulances are no longer able to reach patients or evacuate the wounded due to military checkpoints and widespread closures.

It noted that villages around Nablus have become 'effectively isolated' after most of their entrances were blocked with earth berms and military checkpoints, preventing ambulance and civilian vehicle movement.

It added that paramedics' testimonies indicate that coordination mechanisms have failed to secure safe passages for ambulances and civil defense, preventing patients from reaching hospitals and emergency teams from reaching those in need.

Medical teams described these restrictions as 'unprecedented' in their impact on ambulance and emergency medical care services.

The organization considered that these developments come in the context of escalating settler violence 'with support and protection from the Israeli army and Israeli authorities,' holding the international community responsible for the continued impunity regarding Israeli violations in the West Bank.

It noted that the number of active checkpoints and closures in the West Bank reached 925 by the end of 2025, an increase of 43 percent compared to the average of the past two decades, according to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), severely affecting the freedom of movement of about 3.4 million Palestinians and their access to basic services.

For his part, Imran Anati, a researcher in the organization's Occupied Palestinian Territory department, said that storming a normally functioning hospital while searching for a body 'constitutes a grave violation of the principle of medical neutrality and undermines the special protection hospitals enjoy under international law.'

He added, 'Closing entire communities and preventing ambulances from reaching patients or transporting the wounded puts civilians' lives at direct risk.'

He pointed out that reports from the Nablus area, including patients unable to access treatment and a woman forced to give birth in her village due to closures, exemplify the 'heavy human cost' of these measures.

Anati called on Israeli authorities to ensure safe and unimpeded access for ambulances and medical teams, and to fully comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law.

The occupied West Bank has seen an escalation in attacks by the Israeli army and settlers since the start of the genocide war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

The attacks have resulted in the deaths of 1,182 Palestinians and injuries to thousands, as well as the arrest of about 24,000, according to official Palestinian data.