Palestinian baby dies after crossing Gaza

Ibrahim Abu Nahel died after waiting for hours to enter Israel at the Erez border crossing with Gaza, Muawiya Abu Hassanin, the director of the Palestinian ambulance service, told AFP.

The Israeli authorities denied that the boy and his father had been delayed at the border crossing, saying they had passed within minutes.

"He arrived at 8 am (and) he was delayed at least three hours at Erez," Hassanin said, referring to Nahel's father with whom he spoke by telephone.

"Once he passed, the Israelis did not arrange for an ambulance, so he took a taxi to the hospital and he died in the taxi near Ashkelon," a southern Israeli town, Hassanin said.

A spokesman for the Israeli military liaison office for Gaza said the pair's passage through Erez was expedited.

"He arrived at 8:35 am and at 8:45 he crossed, after we made a special, accelerated, VIP process for him," Shady Yassin told AFP.

An autopsy on the body is due to be performed inside Israel within days, Hassanin said.

After the Islamist Hamas seized control of Gaza in mid-June, Israel has nearly sealed off the overcrowded territory on its southern border, allowing only humanitarian aid to enter the coastal strip and severely restricting the number of Palestinians who can leave it.

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