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22.5 percent of Palestinian children suffer chronic or acute malnutrition, 19.7 have Anaemia
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NABLUS,
West Bank, Sept 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Israeli army
Thursday, September 05, 2002, continued its aggressions in the West
Bank, abducting eight Palestinian activists in and around Nablus, making
two sweeps into Gaza. Also an Israeli helicopter opened fire, for no
apparent reason, on Jacob's Well, a Greek Orthodox convent on the edge
of the Balata camp. This came only a day after UN envoy, Catherine
Bertini, urged Israel to live up to commitments to minimize the impact
of its security measures on Palestinian civilians.
In
Nablus' Balata refugee camp, Israeli troops abducted four brothers from
the resistance group Hamas and two other brothers from Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, according to Palestinian
security sources, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Also, an Israeli helicopter fired, for no apparent reason, on Jacob's
Well, a Greek Orthodox convent on the edge of the Balata camp.
Father Justinos Mamalas told AFP that bullets damaged the walls of his
convent, already been targeted by an Israeli gunship at the beginning of
the Intifada, two years ago.
Two more Palestinians were detained in the nearby village of Jammayin,
witnesses said.
Meanwhile,
two Israeli soldiers were wounded Thursday by Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip, where the Israeli army staged two incursions, security sources
said.
The two soldiers were injured in the north, near the Jewish settlement
of Nitzanit, military sources said, adding that the army returned fire.
Earlier, Israeli tanks and jeeps moved into two autonomous Palestinian
areas in the Gaza Strip in the southern city of Rafah and the central
town of Deir al-Balah, Palestinian security sources said. It was not
immediately clear what prompted the incursions.
The latest Israeli escalation came less than twenty-four hours after UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan's personal humanitarian envoy, Catherine
Bertini, urged Israel ease the impact of its security measures on
Palestinian civilians.
In a report to members of the Security Council, Bertini said "a
serious and mounting humanitarian crisis is occurring in the West Bank
and Gaza," AFP reported.
The crisis was "inextricably linked" to measures taken by
Israel in response to suicide attacks on military and civilian targets,
Bertini said.
She said that during an eight-day visit to the region last month, she
obtained "several commitments from Israeli authorities to address
some of the most immediate constraints."
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“Trigger-Happy” Israeli soldiers patrol Palestinian occupied territories
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These included a commitment not to hold ambulances at checkpoints for
more than 30 minutes, and "to ensure the regular and uninterrupted
delivery of water to cities and villages."
Israel previously committed itself to improving the overall situation at
checkpoints, to deploy more experienced army personnel and to implement
a 12-mile fishing zone off the Gaza coast, she said.
"Implementation of these five measures will save lives, provide a
measure of relief and represent a glimmer of hope on an otherwise bleak
horizon," she said. Their timely implementation was critical, she
added.
Evidence for the crisis lay in "rising levels of malnutrition among
children, high levels of poverty and unemployment, deteriorating health
conditions" and the increasing inability of Palestinians to make
survival strategies work, Bertini said.
The report was based on a visit she made to Israel and the Palestinian
territories between August 12 and 19 and on interviews she had with top
officials from both sides.
Bertini, a former head of the United Nations World Food Program, was
appointed as Annan's envoy on August 7.
She said more than 100,000 jobs were lost as the result of tighter
border controls, a sharp cut in work permits for Palestinians in Israel,
and "the almost complete cessation of productive activities in the
West Bank and Gaza."
Many Palestinian families had seen their incomes dry up, but prices had
not gone down, Bertini said. A growing number of families had cut down
their food consumption, and 22.5 percent of children now suffered from
chronic or acute malnutrition, she said. Anaemia had been found in 19.7
of children.
An estimated 1.5 million Palestinians out of a total population of 3.3
million now receive direct food aid, more than five times as many as two
years ago, she said.
Half the population had had to borrow money to buy food, and about 17
percent had had to sell assets to do so, she went on.
The report also called on Israel to "ensure access by all people in
need of medical services and the free flow of all aid workers, supplies
and services, including medical supplies."
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