New Delhi, July 9 -- 20 in the afternoon, Ahmad was dead. Maarouf collected his death certificate the same day.

The infant did not die from a bomb or a bullet. He died from a locked gate. An Israeli military checkpoint between Deir Ammar and Ramallah has been sealed since Israel began its strikes against Iran in February, cutting approximately 18,000 Palestinians across three villages from the city's hospitals, clinics, and services. When Ahmad stopped breathing and a medical team summoned an ambulance, the gate was not an administrative inconvenience. It was the obstacle that ended his life.

Medical staff had planned to carry Ahmad, wearing his oxygen mask, across the gate on foot to an ambulance waiting on the other side. The transfer...