from a grid.256 Israeli emergency services in H2 refuse to aid Palestinians, forcing them to rely on Palestinian emergency services from H1. However, Israel has prohibited Palestinian emergency vehicles in parts of the Old City and occasionally enforces closures. As a result, Palestinian fire trucks and ambulances must take alternate routes or engage in lengthy coordination efforts with Israeli authorities in order to gain entry.257 The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) estimates that the time it takes for its ambulances to reach patients increased from seven to 17 minutes on average due to the closures in the Old City. When it is necessary to coordinate their services with the Israeli army – usually when they need to pass through a checkpoint – the average time to reach a patient is 47 minutes.258 This is often too late, and several Palestinians have died as a result of the delay in emergency medical assistance.259 Consequently, many pregnant women move out of the Old City before they are due to give birth so they can ensure access to medical services.260 Similar delays are experienced by the Palestinian fire department. Between September 2000 and January 2004, average wait time to obtain access to H2 for a fire truck was 15 minutes. In 38 cases, they were forced to wait for more than an hour.261 This denial of access to essential services deprives Palestinians of their fundamental human rights to an adequate standard of living, medical care and social services.262 It also infringes on their right to freedom from discrimination, as all of these services are provided without hindrance to the Israeli colonizers in the area. This discrimination has effectively created two environments: a supportive environment for Israeli colonizers, and a coercive environment for Palestinians. This coercive environment has led to both temporary displacements – in the case of pregnant women – and permanent ones, thus exemplifying a pattern of forcible transfer.263 Although the sharp decline in the Palestinian population in H2 following Israeli control of the area is quite apparent on the ground, there is a lack 256 Id., 43. 257 Id., 45. 258 OCHA oPt, Humanitarian Update. Special Focus: The Closure of Hebron’s Old City, July 2005, 2, available at: https://www.ochaopt.org/sites/default/files/ochaHU0705_En.pdf [hereinafter OCHA, Closure of Hebron’s Old City]. 259 Interview with Abdul Majeed K. on 25 February 2016. 260 OCHA, Closure of Hebron’s Old City, 2, supra note 258. 261 Ibid. 262 UN General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 1948, 217 A (III), arts. 25-26, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3712c.html [hereinafter UNGA, Universal Declaration] [accessed 22 August 2017]. 263 BADIL, FPT: Old City of Hebron, 59, supra note 254. 72