UN aid workers still unable to reach Jenin camp, despite Israeli assurances

Despite repeated requests by the United Nations to enter Jenin camp on the West Bank - and assurances from Israel that access would be provided - UN and other international relief workers have still not been permitted to enter, according to a UN official in the region, the UN reported today.

Salman Shaikh, an aide to Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process said the UN, the World Bank and the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) had organized a trip to Jenin seeking to deliver humanitarian supplies to the refugee camps. "Assurances were given that they would be granted access yesterday [but] they were not able to get in," he told UN Radio in a telephone interview, adding, "they tried today but still they have not been able to enter.

Commenting on Israel's reasons for refusing access to the UN, Mr. Shaikh said the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) asserted it was still not safe to go into the camp because of booby traps. He noted that others "will have a different take." According to Mr. Shaikh, the situation on the ground had not changed substantially, with the IDF continuing to occupy the West Bank cities of Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah and Bethlehem, as well as a small number of additional towns. "All other West Bank cities remain under closure," he said, adding that the IDF said it had arrested some 4,000 Palestinians in house-to-house searches.