Military

DATE=04/12/02

TYE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-288650

TITLE=INTERNATIONAL AID/MIDEAST (L)

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: United Nations aid agencies say they are having great difficulty bringing food, medical and other relief supplies to tens-of-thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank, where Israeli forces launched a military operation last month in response to a series of deadly suicide bombings against Israelis. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the agencies plan to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza, and hope Israeli troops will ease access in the West Bank.

TEXT: The World Food Program says it is sending 40 tons of food into the Palestinian-controlled territories in Gaza. Spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume says the agency is hoping to get assistance to 370-thousand Palestinians who previously were under the care of the Palestinian Authority.

/// BERTHIAUME ACT ///

Because the Palestinian Authority does not have any money any more, because there is no more economy in the region, they have asked us to help those people. Those 370-thousand are also the daily workers who used to work in Israel, but cannot go there any more, because the territories are completely cut off.

/// END ACT ///

Ms. Berthiaume says W-F-P is not able to go to the West Bank. So, the agency only will be able to distribute food to people in Gaza.

The U-N Children Fund, UNICEF, says it was able to send two convoys of supplies into the West Bank town of Jenin this week. But aid workers only were able to reach people in the town, not in the refugee camp there.

/// OPT /// Rene Aquarone is the spokesman for UN-RWA (UHN-rah) the U-N agency that looks after Palestinian refugees. He says no organizations have had access to the refugee camps in Jenin and Nablus for three days. The camps have been the scene of intense fighting between Israelis and Palestinians.

/// AQUARONE ACT // OPT ACT ///

To my knowledge, no independent or external organization has entered the camps yet. We are bracing ourselves for the moment when it will be possible to enter, and we are very, very concerned as to what we will find.

/// END ACT // END OPT ///

The director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Paul Grossrieder, just returned from a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. At a news conference in Geneva, he expressed concern about the destruction of houses and infrastructure in the West Bank, and the lack of access for Palestinians to routine medical care. At checkpoints, he says, Israelis fire warning shots. He said the Red Cross did not object to the Israelis checking ambulances, but said it should be done correctly.

/// GROSSRIEDER ACT ///

Humiliation is not acceptable. The work of control, the work linked with security has to be done, but it should be done in a decent way, in a proper way. As one delegate told me, it is not normal that when you try to talk to an Israeli soldier, the answer is shooting.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Grossrieder also strongly condemned suicide bombings, saying the Palestinians had to respect the Geneva Conventions governing treatment of civilians. Dozens of Israelis have been killed by suicide bombers in recent weeks. The latest attack occurred Friday in Jerusalem.

The Red Cross says dozens of Red Cross medical workers have been wounded and two killed in the violence. (Signed)

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