A/HRC/7/76 page 15 52. On 14 February, international humanitarian organizations reported that the village of Beit Ummar in the South Hebron region had been under curfew of the Israeli Defence Forces for several days and that the army had declared it a closed military zone. According to the same organizations, the Israeli Defence Forces distributed leaflets stating that a week-long curfew was to be enforced. Seven streets inside the village were closed off during the curfew, and a store at the entrance of the village, adjacent to a military watchtower, was demolished. On the same day, a 5-day curfew of the northern West Bank town of Azzoun, near Qalqilyah, came to an end. Although town residents were allowed to walk in the streets, roadblocks barring movement to a neighbouring Palestinian village and to a major road remained in place. According to United Nations sources, the Israeli Defence Forces distributed leaflets in Azzoun threatening village residents that, if youngsters did not stop throwing stones at Israeli settler vehicles travelling near the village, they would carry out arrests, close the main entrance to the village, close the shops and open fire on stone throwers. Following further incidents of stone throwing, the Israeli Defence Forces reimposed the curfew for one day on 16 February. On 18 February, the main entrance of the village was closed with earth mounds and wires. 53. In relation to the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, according to medical sources, on 14 February, a Palestinian woman who was refused access to an ambulance at an Israeli checkpoint died in her village in the West Bank. Local witnesses said that the husband of the woman pleaded with soldiers at the Jarushiya checkpoint near the town of Tulkarem to let his wife get to an ambulance waiting to take her to a Palestinian hospital but was ignored. A source of the Israeli Defence Forces said that the soldiers at the checkpoint were unaware of the woman’s circumstances because her family had not informed the local military coordination office for humanitarian cases of the ambulance’s arrival. 54. On 27 January, following her recent visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief expressed her concern over the fact that Muslims and Christians were impeded from worshipping at some of their most holy sites because of an elaborate system of permits, visas, checkpoints and the Wall, declaring that the intrusive restrictions were disproportionate to their aim and discriminatory and arbitrary in their implementation.24 In addition to impeding access to places of worship, the restrictions also prevented a number of Palestinians from gathering during marriages and funerals, which constitute important religious events for both Muslims and Christians. 55. In 2007, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination also expressed its deep concern at the Wall, checkpoints, restricted roads and permit systems, which targeted a particular national or ethnic group, and which have created hardship and have had a highly detrimental impact on the enjoyment of human rights by Palestinians, in particular their right to freedom of movement, family life, work, education and health.25 24 Statement by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir, Jerusalem, 27 January 2008. The International Court of Justice also noted that Israel must ensure freedom of access to the holy places that came under its control following the 1967 war; see International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the Wall, paras. 149-154. 25 CERD/C/ISR/CO/13, para. 34.