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 …
