House Demolitions hit 12,700 in West Bank and Gaza Strip
UNRWA PRESS RELEASE | 08.05.2003 19:28
Copenhagen - The total number of Palestinians made homeless by Israeli’s military demolition campaign climbed above 12,000 this month following a rapid acceleration of the policy in Gaza during the first quarter of this year.
UNRWA PRESS RELEASE
7 May 2003
Press Release No. HQ/G/05/2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
House Demolitions hit 12,700 in West Bank and Gaza Strip
Copenhagen - The total number of Palestinians made homeless by Israeli’s military demolition campaign climbed above 12,000 this month following a rapid acceleration of the policy in Gaza during the first quarter of this year.
From the beginning of the current strife in September 2000 until April 30 2003, a total of 12,737 people had seen their homes demolished in Gaza and the West Bank. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which is responsible for the welfare for almost all of those affected, is trying to raise donor funds to replace the lost shelters in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Recent months have seen a sharp increase in house demolitions in the Gaza Strip. At the end of 2002, total and partial demolitions had up to then averaged under 30 per month. In the first three months of 2003, 221 shelters were demolished or damaged beyond repair - making an average of 74 a month. These alone housed 401 families (2,273 persons).
Demolitions often occur late at night with little or no warning. Israeli military units - supported by tanks, APCs and helicopters - enter Palestinian areas to destroy a variety of targeted houses. A great many demolitions have occurred near Gaza’s border with Egypt where Israel is building a security fence. Houses close to settlements are often also destroyed. In some cases the demolished houses belong to the families of militants or Palestinians detained in Israeli jails. Increasingly, explosives rather than bulldozers are used to destroy property creating widespread collateral damage.
UNRWA has so far been able to complete only 158 new shelters for homeless families and is working on 160 more. A further 471 shelters, including those destroyed in Jenin in April 2002, are at the planning and design stage, but security concerns have caused delays to rebuilding.
Peter Hansen, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, is currently visiting the Nordic countries for meetings with Governments in the region. He said: "Even as we rebuild, it is impossible for UNRWA to keep pace with the current level of destruction in the occupied territory. Even if peace were to break out tomorrow there would be an ongoing need for funds for reconstruction to help all those families who have lost their homes in this conflict."
Mr Hansen will discuss donor funding for UNRWA’s emergency operations and the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory in a series of meetings with the Governments of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland and with regional NGOs.
-Ends-
For more information contact: Kim Garval at the UN Information Centre Copenhagen on (45) 35 46 73 00 or Paul McCann at UNRWA HQ Gaza on (972) 8 677 7526.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For a donation of US$30 can provide one month's food parcel for a family of eight containing 50kg of flour, five kg of rice, five kg of sugar, two liters of cooking oil, one kg of powdered mil and five kg of lentils.
You can make a donation by visiting
http://www.un.org/unrwa/emergency/donation/index.html and paying by credit card, or by sending crossed cheques to UNRWA liaison offices. Alternatively you can send cheques payable to UNRWA to its bank accounts. Please contact us about a nearest bank account from your location.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please inform
n.ando@unrwa.org if you wish to unsubscribe from our mailing list.
Public Information Office
UNRWA-HQ (Gaza)
website: www.unrwa.org
7 May 2003
Press Release No. HQ/G/05/2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
House Demolitions hit 12,700 in West Bank and Gaza Strip
Copenhagen - The total number of Palestinians made homeless by Israeli’s military demolition campaign climbed above 12,000 this month following a rapid acceleration of the policy in Gaza during the first quarter of this year.
From the beginning of the current strife in September 2000 until April 30 2003, a total of 12,737 people had seen their homes demolished in Gaza and the West Bank. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which is responsible for the welfare for almost all of those affected, is trying to raise donor funds to replace the lost shelters in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Recent months have seen a sharp increase in house demolitions in the Gaza Strip. At the end of 2002, total and partial demolitions had up to then averaged under 30 per month. In the first three months of 2003, 221 shelters were demolished or damaged beyond repair - making an average of 74 a month. These alone housed 401 families (2,273 persons).
Demolitions often occur late at night with little or no warning. Israeli military units - supported by tanks, APCs and helicopters - enter Palestinian areas to destroy a variety of targeted houses. A great many demolitions have occurred near Gaza’s border with Egypt where Israel is building a security fence. Houses close to settlements are often also destroyed. In some cases the demolished houses belong to the families of militants or Palestinians detained in Israeli jails. Increasingly, explosives rather than bulldozers are used to destroy property creating widespread collateral damage.
UNRWA has so far been able to complete only 158 new shelters for homeless families and is working on 160 more. A further 471 shelters, including those destroyed in Jenin in April 2002, are at the planning and design stage, but security concerns have caused delays to rebuilding.
Peter Hansen, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, is currently visiting the Nordic countries for meetings with Governments in the region. He said: "Even as we rebuild, it is impossible for UNRWA to keep pace with the current level of destruction in the occupied territory. Even if peace were to break out tomorrow there would be an ongoing need for funds for reconstruction to help all those families who have lost their homes in this conflict."
Mr Hansen will discuss donor funding for UNRWA’s emergency operations and the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory in a series of meetings with the Governments of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland and with regional NGOs.
-Ends-
For more information contact: Kim Garval at the UN Information Centre Copenhagen on (45) 35 46 73 00 or Paul McCann at UNRWA HQ Gaza on (972) 8 677 7526.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For a donation of US$30 can provide one month's food parcel for a family of eight containing 50kg of flour, five kg of rice, five kg of sugar, two liters of cooking oil, one kg of powdered mil and five kg of lentils.
You can make a donation by visiting
![](/img/extlink.gif)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please inform
![](/img/maillink.gif)
Public Information Office
UNRWA-HQ (Gaza)
website: www.unrwa.org
UNRWA PRESS RELEASE
Homepage:
www.unrwa.org
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
Don't grow bombers and gunmen
09.05.2003 15:07
Don't send your children out to kill the Jews in their homes, buses, schools, and coffee shops then they will not have a reason to punish you for your crime.
Teaching your children to kill when lives are not in jeporody is a crime in every developed country and you must expect to punished. Its time the Arab leadership learn this and change their actions.
Kelly
A better solution than ethnic cleansing .....
09.05.2003 17:51
No more trade preferences from the European Union - in fact no trade whatsoever until Israel destroys it's massive arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and learns to obey international law, including the Geneva Convention, and ends the illegal occupation.
Compared to what we've just done to Iraq - for precisely those reasons - that actually seems very reasonable.
Unless of course you agree with Kelly, in which case you belong in a cell next to Slobodan Milosevic on the same charge of ethnic cleansing.
Boycott Israeli Goods
kelly
11.05.2003 06:10
It seems that for you Palestinians should doing nothing and let be eliminated from the rabid IDF.
The solution of the problem is or Israel should disappear or become civilized country and live together with Palestinians. Ethnic cleansing is a crime against humanity, Sharon and IDF should be hanged!
machno