Woman wounded in shooting gives birth

NABLUS, West Bank -- When his wife started going into labor, Issam Shehade says they got into the car and drove slowly to the hospital, stopping once at an Israeli checkpoint.

But at a second checkpoint, shots rang out, hitting his wife in the chest. The bullet went straight through her, doctors said, but she survived -- and six hours later gave birth to a baby girl.

They named her "Hiba" -- gift from God.

Israel said its soldiers opened fire on the car when it ignored an order to stop. Shehade said he heard no order and that soldiers helped treat his wife.

The drama began at 5 a.m., when Shehade, 31, and his 27-year-old wife, Shadia, set out from their home in the village of Huwara to Rafidia Hospital, seven miles away in the city of Nablus.

"I knew there were soldiers in Nablus," said the proud -- if rattled -- new father. "So I drove carefully and slowly."

He said he stopped at one checkpoint. Soldiers asked him to take off his jacket to show that he was not carrying explosives. Suicide bombers often strap explosives to their bodies.

Soldiers searched the car and then allowed them to continue, Shehade said.

Troops on alert

Further down the road, the Israelis had another temporary position -- but no roadblock, he said.

The Israeli army said troops billeted near the Balata refugee camp were on alert after receiving a warning that Palestinians intended to set off a car bomb alongside one of their positions there.

The military said in a statement that the Shehades' car broke through an earth barricade between the road and a building where troops were stationed. The vehicle was shot at when the driver ignored an order to stop, the army said.

Shehade says he heard no order to stop.

"I saw a few tanks parked in the street, and I passed slowly beside them. After I passed, I heard shooting, then I heard my wife beside me shouting 'I am injured!"' he said. "I shouted at the soldiers, telling them my wife is pregnant and must be in the hospital."

Shehade said the soldiers administered first aid to his wife and then took them back to the checkpoint. They were transferred to an Israeli ambulance until a Palestinian ambulance arrived to take them to Rafidia Hospital, two miles away.

Doctors said the bullet penetrated the woman's chest and exited her back, just missing her vital organs. Shadia Shehade was in moderate condition and in no danger, doctors said. The baby was unharmed.

Before the shooting, the parents had planned to name their daughter Ahlam, which means "dream," Issam Shehade said. Now they've decided to call her Hiba.