On the occasion of World Diabetes Day, Jerusalem Story accompanied the Mobile Diabetes Clinic of Augusta Victoria Hospital (al-Muttala‘ Hospital in Arabic) from the Mount of Olives in the city, where the hospital is located, to the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, about 30 km from Jerusalem. While both East Jerusalem and al-Mughayyir are part of the rest of the West Bank, Israel’s annexation of the Mount of Olives means that Israeli permanent-resident ID holders often are able to pass Israeli checkpoints that Palestinian Authority (PA) ID holders cannot (see Precarious Status). Thus, the hospital team travels out to the villages, who cannot otherwise reach it without a military entry permit, which is difficult and often impossible to obtain.

Nevertheless, the journey to al-Mughayyir was not easy. It involved many phone calls from the clinic team to inquire about the safest route to reach the village, which is enduring almost daily attacks by Jewish settlers on its homes and agricultural lands.

The most dangerous parts of the trip came when we tried to reach the village through neighboring Turmus Ayya and Abu Falah. Each time the driver stopped a local to ask for directions, the person would explain in detail and then conclude with the phrase: “Just be careful of the settlers.”

Their cautions were well-founded; settlers have increasingly been rampaging villages in the area, lighting trees and property on fire and driving residents from their homes, particularly during the last two years of the Gaza genocide.1

Amid olive tree groves, the mobile clinic navigated rugged mountain roads until it finally reached the village, parking in front of the village council building, where it began receiving residents. Written in their faces was sadness and pain.

Before speaking with any of the residents, we asked the Mobile Diabetes Clinic staff how it operates. Lana Nasreddin, director of community programs at Augusta Victoria Hospital, explained that the clinic was established as part of the hospital’s vision of providing comprehensive health care for diabetes patients, improving their quality of life, and offering advanced diagnostic and treatment services.2 Launched in 2014, the clinic goes out to remote areas where residents have trouble accessing health services in Jerusalem in order to give them medical examinations and follow-up care.

Diabetes is one of the chronic conditions that the mobile clinic diagnoses and treats. In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly designated November 14 as World Diabetes Day, encouraging member states to develop national policies for the disease’s prevention, treatment, and care, in line with the sustainable development of their health systems.3

Nasreddin says that the mobile clinic’s coverage extends from the far north to the far south. It is staffed by a specialized medical and nursing team that includes a doctor, two nurses, and a nutritionist. Patients get access to a comprehensive set of health services, especially for diabetes: screening and blood sugar tests, foot examinations for early detection of complications, retinal screening, medical consultations with a specialist doctor, dietary guidance from the nutritionist, and educational workshops about prevention methods and self-monitoring.

In fact, Nasreddin says that the Mobile Diabetes Clinic has become the primary point of care for diabetes patients in outlying areas. It served 8,696 patients in 2024, and an additional 5,455 patients, men and women, from the beginning of 2025 until the end of September.

Inside the truck, we met Ziad Baradieh, coordinator of the Mobile Diabetes Clinic, who was initially busy trying to find alternative routes to avoid settler attacks on the clinic and its team.4

Baradieh said that the clinic is crucial for several reasons, the most important being that it provides a service not generally available within the Palestinian health system.

Moreover, it reaches the patients instead of requiring them to travel, especially those in remote areas without local health services, and the clinic is completely free of charge.

Since October 7, 2023, Baradieh says, the West Bank has faced paralyzing closures from all types of checkpoints and gates, permanent barriers or temporary ones, suddenly erected at the entrances or in the middle of villages, cities, and roads (see New Checkpoints, Gates, and Procedures Paralyze Palestinian Mobility across the West Bank, Including East Jerusalem).

“Sometimes we spend two hours at a single military checkpoint,” he says, “and it’s not the only one we must cross during our daily trips.” Still, he says that the successes they have serving people motivate them to keep providing the service.

One such success story he mentioned during our meeting was of a 20-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes. When she first visited the mobile clinic, her HbA1c (average blood glucose, or sugar, level over three months) was 12. After examining her eyes and feet, the doctor prescribed her suitable medication, and the nutritionist gave her a dietary plan. When she saw the team on the following visit, her HbA1c had dropped to 7.

As we stood at the mobile clinic entrance, al-Mughayyir residents began arriving. Among those we met was Hani Naasan, 65, who complained of dry mouth, blurry vision, and trembling hands, and feared he might have diabetes. Despite his worries, he hadn’t even thought of going to Ramallah to get checked.5

“Since the beginning of the war, my job has become guarding my own house,” he explains. “I’m afraid that if I leave it for just a few hours, I’ll return to find that settlers have burned it down. Luckily, the clinic came to us today, and my test results are fairly good.”

Aliya Naasan, 60, also came on foot from her home in the farthest point in the village in order to undergo a diabetes test for reassurance. She said that she cannot leave her house for more than two continuous hours, fearing an attack by settlers or the Israeli army.6

“I stay in my house around the clock,” she says, “watching the situation so I can gather my children and grandchildren around me whenever there’s an attack. I fear going to Ramallah and being unable to return because of a sudden closure or assault, even though I need medical follow-up and treatment.”

Shaher Naasan, 68, was the last resident we met. His eyes were red, and his face worn with sorrow.7 We approached him to talk after his diabetes test, during which he said to Baradieh, “All these illnesses have attacked me because of the settlers.”

Explaining what he meant, Naasan said that he and his four brothers once owned 850 olive trees on their lands east of the village. The settlers completely uprooted and stole them, leaving him with only the trees immediately surrounding his house. This season, those remaining trees produced just 7 tins of olive oil, compared to the 50 tins his olive trees used to yield annually.

“That’s why my diabetes and high blood pressure have gotten worse, my friend. When I saw the mass slaying of our trees, I was bedridden for a week. We raise olive trees the way we raise our children; they sustain us and allow us to educate our sons and daughters in universities. Today, we have nothing left.”

What pains this elderly man even more is the terror in which his grandchildren live, fearful of settlers’ nightly attacks on homes in attempts to burn them.

“Every day, I bring my daughter and her children to sleep in my house, because her home is on the edge of the village and more exposed to attacks than those in the center. This is our reality; this is our life.”

As the Mobile Diabetes Clinic was wrapping up its work in al-Mughayyir, we stopped in at the village council building and spoke with council member Marzouq Abu Naeem. He explained that the village covers an area of 43,000 dunams and is home to 4,000 residents. About 95 percent of its lands are classified as Area C.8 Since October 7, 2023, the villagers have been left with only 950 dunams—the area where their homes stand—while the remaining land has been taken over by settlers under the protection of the Israeli army. Landowners have been completely barred from accessing their property, even though those lands are their primary source of livelihood, alongside sheep farming.

There have been several serious attacks by settlers on the villagers. The first was in 2018, when 15 armed settlers attacked al-Mughayyir, killing one young man and injuring 14 others, 4 of whom were left with permanent disabilities. A second deadly attack occurred in April 2024, when more than 1,500 settlers stormed the village, burning around 15 houses completely and 16 partially, and stealing sheep. One person was killed, and 76 others were injured. In August 2025, settler attacks on the village continued for three consecutive days. During that time, the army sealed off the village, trapping the residents inside. In that attack, settlers uprooted 10,670 olive trees, each more than 100 years old, coming down into the village from nine surrounding settlement outposts.

Given these attacks and the ongoing sense that the village is under siege, Abu Naeem emphasized how important it was for the Mobile Diabetes Clinic to come regularly from Jerusalem to al-Mughayyir. Residents might not venture out due to fears of a settler raid or even the high cost of transportation and treatment; in a very real sense, the mobile clinic is a barrier-breaking lifesaver.