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Pregnant Palestinian suffers miscarriage after Israeli tear gas attack

January 21, 2021 at 3:28 pm

Israeli forces fire at Palestinians with tear gas during a protest in the West Bank on 15 March 2019 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

A seven-month pregnant Palestinian mother suffered a miscarriage after tear gas was fired repeatedly by Israeli soldiers at her home in the village of Al-Mughayyer near Ramallah last week. Areej Abu Alya, 37, inhaled a lot of the gas and started to suffocate during the attack.

She was rushed to hospital by her husband Iyad, where her condition worsened. During the treatment, doctors discovered that her baby’s pulse was no longer detected. Areej was in intensive care for several days after losing a lot of blood and requiring transfusions.

“We live in a very dangerous area,” Iyad told Wafa news agency. “Tear gas canisters are scattered around the house and inside, and I can no longer collect them immediately to throw them out of our children’s reach.”

The couple have eight children. According to Iyad, the tear gas comes in through the windows while they are sleeping almost every night. “Every week I take my children to the village doctor, all of them with severe symptoms as a result of inhaling tear gas and suffering from a burning sensation in the lungs, which causes them to vomit, and have chest pains and severe coughs.”

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He believes that the gas used by the Israeli occupation forces is a new, more toxic type. Palestinian doctors have accused the Israelis before of using chemical weapons, not tear gas, and testing new varieties on the people in the occupied territories to see what the effects are on human beings.

Attacks, assaults and acts of vandalism are carried out frequently on Palestinian towns and villages in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Illegal settlers and Israeli soldiers are always the culprits.