Humanitarian action frozen as Middle East security worsens

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 12/01/06

The EU has decided to freeze humanitarian operations in some areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as the difficult security situation there endangers personnel.

With tensions rising ahead of Palestinian legislative elections later this month, the European Commission has decided to halt non-critical humanitarian aid operations in Gaza, Hebron and Jenin.

A spokesperson for the Commission said that there would be a delay for all but the most urgent humanitarian work in the three areas affected until further notice.

Security has been tightened for EU border monitors in southern Gaza and election monitors throughout the territories.

The EU's 50 border monitors and 30 election monitors currently deployed to the region will have heightened security after a recent spate of violence and a series of kidnappings of Europeans, which have prompted a number of EU countries to advise their nationals to leave Gaza.

Julio de la Guardia, a spokesperson for EU BAM, the EU's two-month old mission to oversee the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza, said that while the EU observers had not been targeted directly, security measures had been revised.

Monitors will now travel to their destinations using a variety of routes and will wear flak jackets and helmets while inside armoured vehicles.

"We have to implement the agreement but our first priority has to be safety," he said.

Last month unrest forced the temporary closure of the Rafah crossing and on 4 January Palestinian militant groups broke through the Egyptian-Gazan frontier four kilometres from the crossing, an episode resulting in the deaths of two Egyptian soldiers and the arrest of around 150 Palestinians.

One European diplomat speaking from the region said that security was now a primary concern ahead of the elections, but that the mood remained upbeat for the EU's various operations.

"There is a sense that things are working," said the diplomat.

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is being urged to take firmer control. With the security situation worsening and hardliners apparently set to do well at the polls, analysts see Abbas's authority slipping.

Speaking this week during a visit to Gaza, Abbas said that he had issued instructions to the security forces to use force if necessary to make sure the elections went ahead on 25 January.

A delegation of 30 MEPs is expected to arrive in the Palestinian Territories on 22 January to monitor the vote, despite threats that they will be targets for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

A spokesperson for the MEPs who are to travel to the region said that there had been no direct threat received against the delegation and they would receive a security briefing on arrival.

Article reports that the EU decided to freeze humanitarian operations in some areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as the difficult security situation there endangered personnel. This move, which affected non-critical humanitarian aid operations in Gaza, Hebron and Jenin, came two weeks before the Palestinian legislative elections, scheduled for 25 January 2006.