American Nurse Who Tried to Save “No Other Land” Activist Was Detained and Deported by Israel
Israel detained and then deported an American nurse who tried to save the life of Awdah Hathaleen a Palestinian activist who worked on the Oscar-winning documentary film No Other Land After Israeli settler Yinon Levi allegedly shot and killed Hathaleen on Monday in Umm al-Khair a village in the occupied West Bank the critical care nurse gave Hathaleen four rounds of CPR She cradled his head in her hands checking his pulse and whispering You re OK as he bled out the nurse notified The Intercept The clinical worker requested not to be named because they fear for their safety Hathaleen was then taken away in an ambulance where he died before reaching the hospital About feet away and minutes before Hathaleen was shot another Israeli settler in an excavator tried to destroy the village s main water pipe according to media reports A local man named Ahmad Awdah s cousin was struck in the head with the excavator s arm and nearly knocked unconscious after he tried to stop the driver Turning to Ahmad after Hathaleen was taken away the nurse administered a neurological exam he was severely concussed with diminished mental function before he too was taken to the hospital in an ambulance They don t want people to feel peaceful helping Palestinians Soon after on Monday evening Israeli law enforcement officers detained the American nurse and an Italian citizen on the scene The personnel took them to a police station where they were detained for nearly hours In detention the nurse noted they recognized five Palestinians from the village sitting on the ground blindfolded and zip-tied At the same time the nurse commented Levi was walking around freely and sharing cigarettes with the police officers no handcuffs or anything After reporting as ordered to another police outpost the nurse was deported on Thursday to Jordan The nurse believes it s because they witnessed the settler incursion and violence then provided health care to Hathaleen and his cousin They don t want people to feel assured helping Palestinians the nurse revealed In the attack on the village of Umm al-Khair several Americans attempted to help the Palestinians according to interviews with eyewitnesses and they were detained by Israeli bureaucrats In one of the cases the American was stopped by executives from giving biological aid to a Palestinian Attempts to block and remove first responders stand as examples of one of the solutions Palestinians are denied therapeutic care after being attacked by Israelis This fits a longstanding pattern announced Yousef Munayyer the head of the Palestine Israel Scheme at the Arab Center Washington DC who has researched settler violence I can t tell you how a great number of times we ve seen cases where Palestinians who have been injured either by settlers or by the military are denied healthcare assistance until they ve bled out The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment The Israeli military referred questions to the Israeli police who did not without delay respond Ahmad the injured Palestinian survived but the nurse was put under scrutiny According to the nurse Israeli police announced they suspected that the nurse tampered with evidence a computer located in a inhabitants room for villagers to use The nurse denied the accusations They were in the room to return health supplies according to their account The nurse s account was corroborated by two other eyewitnesses interviewed by The Intercept One of them Tynan Kavanaugh an American health scholar who has been volunteering with clinics in the West Bank helped the nurse attend to the two Palestinians Kavanaugh was in the middle of assessing Ahmad when a uniformed Israeli police officer stopped him from rendering aid he explained The Intercept He s like Get out of here Kavanaugh recalled in an interview So I put my hands up I walk back through a line of soldiers back into the village and they corral all the Palestinians and foreigners into this little fenced-off area When Kavanaugh was taken away along with Palestinian detainees another man stepped in to render aid alongside the nurse Read our complete coverage Israel s War on Gaza Settler Prompts Arrests of Palestinians Israeli soldiers have repeatedly raided Umm Al-Khair in the days since Hathaleen s death The military detained Palestinians and circulated at least with reports of beatings in custody according to Drop Site News On Tuesday an Israeli magistrate court in Jerusalem refused to keep Levi in custody and he was disclosed on house arrest Levi has a reputation for carrying out violent attacks against Palestinians The Biden administration sanctioned him last year but President Donald Trump has lifted sanctions on all Israeli settlers Israeli police have so far refused to release Hathaleen s body despite his family s pleas Related USAID Cuts Help Push West Bank Into Extreme Water Shortages Israeli settler violence in the West Bank has increased in contemporary months and years In June Israeli settlers injured Palestinians marking the highest monthly figure since U N OCHA started documenting casualties in In the first two weeks of July settlers injured Palestinians and carried out multiple attacks against key water infrastructure Kavanaugh the American nurse and a third American all described how Levi the settler who attacked Hathaleen walked freely among Israeli military personnel for more than minutes after the shooting He seemed to be pointing out Palestinians for the soldiers to arrest disclosed the eyewitnesses who provided The Intercept with videos that match the scene they described He did not appear to be in custody at all He was just walking around with them and giving them direction mentioned Kavanaugh The fact that someone was just murdered was just a non-factor Charlie Nichols a journalist with Project Walsh an independent aspirant newsroom mentioned he also saw Levi point out people for the military to arrest He s not in handcuffs Nichols noted Nobody s touching him He s obviously not in any kind of hot water they re very buddy-buddy there was no fear on his face There was no fear on his face Nichols reported that he and Kavanaugh could see Levi through a fence where they had been corralled by the Israeli military alongside Palestinian detainees After he points someone out soldiers would walk in and take that person out he mentioned The fact that somebody had been murdered and the people who were the sufferers were arrested it was the the majority absurd thing I have witnessed The police are complicit in what is happening the nurse revealed They are there to enforce the settlers violence against the Palestinians Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham who co-directed No Other Land corroborated the account in a post on X The settlers walk around as if there is a massive force field protecting them declared Munayyer of the Arab Center Washington DC because there is And the Palestinians have no such expectation They have no such protection There s no expectation of accountability he explained and the military and police are in on it While he was still at the village Kavanaugh realized that Levi was standing just a sparse feet away from him and the nurse as they administered CPR to Hathaleen Kavanaugh noticed a bullet wound in Hathaleen s chest and ruffled through clinical supplies but they didn t have needles or materials to close his chest wounds effectively Hathaleen was eventually taken away by an Israeli ambulance and died before reaching the hospital The village has so little water that I m standing there trying to talk to them covered in blood that I can t wash off Particular of Hathaleen s friends and family members who were nearby petitioned Kavanaugh what happened I just say He was very seriously hurt that I did CPR and I think there s hope but I can t say anything more than it s in God s hands now Kavanaugh commented The village has so little water that I m standing there trying to talk to them covered in blood that I can t wash off The American nurse was in Umm Al-Khair the day of Hathaleen s killing at his request they met a insufficient days earlier and he had questioned her to provide healthcare check ups for villagers Hathaleen learned that it would be the nurse s birthday on Sunday so he helped plan a surprise birthday party in his home They opened up their home fed us a big dinner the nurse mentioned and we did birthday cakes and candles and they invited us in to play with their kids The post American Nurse Who Tried to Save No Other Land Activist Was Detained and Deported by Israel appeared first on The Intercept
