RAMALLAH,
Reoccupied West Bank, September 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) -
Members of the Palestinian Authority, holed up with President Yasser
Arafat, accused the Israeli occupation army Monday, September 23, of
lying about how much food it had allowed into the besieged Ramallah
Headquarters, saying they had only enough for two days at most if they
subsisted on half rations.
"We
don't have enough food. Although we each take half of our daily ration
it will only last two days maximum," said one of President Arafat's
aides from inside the battered offices where 250 Palestinians have been
cooped up for four days, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"We
saw on the Internet the list of supplies the army claimed to have
allowed inside, but it's all lies," charged the aide, who asked not
to be named.
A
Palestinian truck, bearing the name of a local fruit and vegetable
company and escorted by three Israeli army jeeps was briefly allowed to
enter the besieged Ramallah compound Sunday night and deliver food and
basic supplies, but only a quarter of the food the besieged Palestinians
had ordered had actually been allowed in.
"We
ordered food through colleagues from the President's office outside. I
want to make it clear that it's not the Israeli army that paid for and
supplied us with this food.
"The
army only brought half of what we had asked for and called in Israeli
journalists to film the delivery. As soon as the journalists left, they
decided to provide only half of the truck's contents, making it just a
quarter of what we had ordered.
"The
army also refused to allow cooking gas bottles as part of the delivery;
we can only eat cold food from cans. We also didn't get any clean
clothes or underwear," the Arafat aide told AFP by mobile
telephone.
Another
companion of the Palestinian President said the water supply to the HQ
under siege was unreliable and inadequate.
"The
water comes and goes. We can't really wash, the bathrooms are
clogged," Jihad Abu-Khamis told AFP.
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President
Arafat and his Authority use cell phones after the Israeli army
cut off regular phone lines Saturday, September 21
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He
said President Arafat and the 250 members of his Palestinian Authority
and security forces were crammed in eight rooms between the first and
second floor of the three-storey building that used to host his personal
office and living quarters.
Abu-Khamis
said he was due to get married Sunday, September 22, and was only able
to keep in touch with his fiancée by cellular phone.
"She
is sad and worried of course. She hopes I'll be out of here soon."
The
Israeli army cut off regular phone lines Saturday, September 21.
Electricity and water have been working on and off.
The
Palestinian President’s HQ remains hemmed in by Israeli armor, with
four tanks on its eastern side and another two to the west.
And
the top floor remained off-limits to those inside after a hit by an
Israeli shell early in the siege, leaving the 250 people cooped up
inside just 400 square meters (4,000 square feet) of living space
between them.
"Men
from the security services advised us not to stay up there. The floor is
covered with broken glass and the staircase was damaged by several
blasts and possibly a tank shell," former finance minister Salam
Fayad told AFP Friday, September 20.
Israeli
bulldozers and excavators have razed every other building inside the
3,000 square meter (30,000 square foot) Presidential Headquarters.
Israeli
troops stormed the compound Thursday, September 19, backed by tanks and
bulldozers.
