NEVE TSUF, West Bank, March 17 (UPI) -- An Israeli army medic and settlers helped deliver a Palestinian baby near the settlement where five members of the Fogel family were slaughtered Friday.

While Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the Israeli chief of staff, met with relatives of the dead family and offered condolences at the West Bank settlement of Neve Tsuf Wednesday, a cab containing a young Palestinian woman sped to the entrance of the community seeking help, Ynetnews.com reported Thursday.


Inside the taxi was a 20-year old Palestinian woman in the advanced stages of labor, the report said.

Cpl. Haim Levin, an army paramedic who reached the scene followed by civilian paramedics, discovered the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby girl's neck, the news Web site said.

"When I arrived I saw a woman covered by a blanket in a yellow Palestinian van," he told the Web site. "I moved closer and saw the baby's head and upper body. The umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck, and the baby was gray and did not move."

Levin assisted by other paramedics immediately cut the cord, and he then pinched the baby, who started crying. Both the mother and baby are fine. Levin said the family thanked the paramedics and said they named the girl Jude.

Last Friday night, terrorists entered the West Bank settlement of Itamar southeast of Nablus and stabbed to death the parents and three of their children as they slept.