April 4,2002     A  two weeks old Baby, clings precariously to life on dwindling supplies of oxygen at Ramallah Hospital.

The infant, who does not yet have a first name, was born 13 weeks premature and is on life support because his lungs are not developed enough to work on their own. But his lifeline is dependent on the Israeli soldiers who have reoccupied Ramallah. Their takeover, now a week old, has included blocking ambulances and medical supplies, detaining paramedics, physicians and nurses and, on three occasions, temporarily occupying hospitals.

For Baby Hawareh, oxygen is the issue. Palestinian doctors say the hospital holds enough supplies to last two more days, so long as there is no great influx of wounded or other serious medical emergencies. Traffic at the hospital has been light, because combat here has subsided in the past two days.

A Red Cross food-supply vehicle was blocked three times today from trying to reach Ramallah Hospital, said Ola Skuterud, a Red Cross representative in Ramallah. Israeli troops also detained six workers from the affiliated Palestinian Red Crescent Society who were traveling Ramallah roads, he added.

"Tanks threaten us and shoot," Skuterud said in a telephone interview. "We are 1,500 meters from the hospital and they didn't let us pass."

The international relief group Doctors Without Borders issued a statement today complaining that such "obstruction of medical aid for Palestinian civilians has reached alarming levels."

Conditions during the takeover of Ramallah have refueled the bitterness Palestinians feel about Israel's long domination of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces occupied the areas during the 1967 Middle East war. They withdrew from the main cities after the 1993 Oslo peace accords. But even before the beginning of the Palestinian uprising 18 months ago, Palestinian travel was controlled by military checkpoints along the roads, with commerce restricted by Israeli customs prohibitions.

The insecurity here has made many Palestinians long for the Israelis, too, to be insecure.

"They should be able to go to their cafes in peace? Look at my cafe," said Mufin Hasuleh, who owns a coffee shop near Manara Square at the center of Ramallah. His second-floor business was charred, evidently when explosives, used by soldiers to blow open the door, ignited propane gas within. "Why should only we feel like this?"

Rima Khalil, who was shielding herself behind the doorway of her nearby apartment, yelled to passing reporters: "Let them go to hell. There will be more suicide bombers than ever. Let them go to hell!"

Khalil said that her husband and five children have been living on beans, homemade bread, olive oil, rice and bottled water. Like many Palestinians, she kept a larder full of such provisions. "We have been besieged before," she said, in reference to an uprising in the late 1980s when Israel enforced numerous curfews to suppress stone-throwing youths who confronted the soldiers.

The pressure on medical services has been a prominent feature of this week's invasion, but it is not without precedent. Searches of ambulances are new. Israeli military officials charged that a few weeks ago, a Palestinian ambulance driver from Ramallah tried to smuggle a bomb into Jerusalem.

Skuterud, the Red Cross representative, doubted the story: "It would be very grave to do such a thing. The circumstances were suspicious and we are not convinced of the Israeli charge."

Skuterud said that today in the West Bank town of Tulkarm, which has also been assaulted by Israeli troops, armor crashed into four Red Crescent ambulances and one other emergency vehicle. Troops also invaded the 42-bed Red Crescent Hospital, he said. They gathered personnel from all floors at the reception area, and forced the hospital director, Awdeh Abu Nahleh, to guide them through the wards, including the sterilized surgical theater, said Nader Ayesh, an anesthetist.

The patients were left unattended during the two-hour visit. Among the abandoned was a baby on a ventilator. "They wouldn't let the nurse remain with him," Ayesh said. Two doctors, two nurses and a sanitation worker were blindfolded, handcuffed and driven away in an armored troop carrier, he added. When they returned, the baby was found safe.

This is the second hospital to be so inspected. The other, Arab Care Hospital, was searched twice. Soldiers tried to enter Ramallah Hospital early this week, but doctors blocked their path and laid two newly arrived corpses in the path of armored vehicles to block their entry into the emergency room driveway.

Ramallah Hospital is the city's largest. It has reported shortages of blood, but occasional Red Cross supplies have alleviated the crisis. Oxygen arrived from Jenin, another West Bank town, three days ago, but a new supply was blocked on Wednesday. Medicine supplies remain adequate, said Hosni Qutari, the director.

Sometimes, the hospital relies on unorthodox methods to operate. The other day, a sniper shot a 56-year-old woman who had left the compound to walk home after getting a cast removed from her leg. Fearful paramedics hesitated to rescue her, although she was only 50 yards from the hospital.

A group of Italian volunteers from an organization called Action for Peace ran toward her. Soldiers in a pair of armored vehicles began to fire shots at the ground around them, witnesses said. The volunteers scattered, but four managed to reach the woman and carry her back. The woman, Widan Sofran, died.

"We could not have even gotten to her if it wasn't for the Italians," said Qutari. "Maybe they are still reluctant to kill foreigners."

Today, doctors inspected Baby Hawareh's progress. He still cannot breathe on his own. His ribs are visible through the skin that hangs loosely on his body, which can be carried by a single hand. Every once in a while, he makes twitchy movements, like a dog paddle. "He cries but makes no noise," said Mahdi Rashed, a pediatrician.

The parents, Akram and Noura, have not visited the baby since the Israelis invaded Ramallah. Evidently, Rashed said, they did not know about Tuesday's brief lifting of the curfew.

"They have no phone and no electricity," said Rashed. "They are in isolation, like their child."