- Title: GAZA: UNITED NATIONS DELEGATION TOUR PALESTINIAN AREAS OF GAZA.
- Date: 20th March 2002
- Summary: (U5) MAWASI, GAZA (MARCH 19, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. MV/PAN: ISRAELI SOLDIERS AT GAZA ROADBLOCK WITH PETER HANSEN, U.N. OFFICIAL IN CHARGE OF PALESTINIAN RELIEF 0.12 2. CU/ZOOM/MV: ISRAELI SOLDIER TALKING WITH HANSEN AND HIS DELEGATION 0.21 3. GV: ISRAELI SOLDIER CHECKING U.N. CAR AT ROADBLOCK 0.32 4. MCU: ISRAELI SOLDIERS CHECKING IDENTIFICATION OF U.N. EMPLOYEES 0.37 5. GV: ISRAELI SOLDIER IN BUNKER AT ROADBLOCK 0.42 6. CU: ISRAELI SOLDIER LOOKING WHILE PEOPLE CROSS ROADBLOCK 0.48 7. GV: JOURNALIST OPENING SHIRT AT CROSSING 0.53 8. MV: PALESTINIAN WOMAN SPEAKING WITH HANSEN 0.57 9. LV: ISRAELI POSITION ABOVE ROADBLOCK 1.05 10. MV: HANSEN TALKING WITH PALESTINIAN RESIDENTS OF MAWASI 1.15 11. GV/ZOOM OUT: ISRAELI POSITION OVERLOOKING ROAD 1.26 12. MCU: SOUNDBITE (English) U.N. OFFICIAL PETER HANSEN SAYING: "In an area that is completely isolated where people have been under curfew for almost two weeks, living under the gunpoint literally, in considerable misery, where they cannot bring anything in or out." 1.44 13. MCU: SOUNDBITE (English) ISRAELI SOLDIER TRYING TO CONVINCE REUTERS TEAM NOT TO FILM, SAYING: "Don't take picture, please, don't take pictures of the military area... I don't have any problem with you walking around here, it's fine with me, no problem, okay? Please don't take pictures of the military area..." 2.31 14. MCU: ISRAELI SOLDIER, ASKED WHAT HIS COLLEAGUES WERE DOING, SAYING: "We're doing our duty here. We have to be here. Okay? That's it." 2.38 15. MCU: SOUNDBITE (English) REUTERS REPORTER SAYING: "But why are they shooting?" 2.41 16. MCU: SOUNDBITE (English) SOLDIER SAYING: "It's nothing." 2.44 17. GV: ISRAELI POSITION 2.47 18. GV: ISRAELI ARMY JEEP DRIVING BY 2.54 19. GV/PAN: BUS DRIVING AWAY 3.07 20. MV: DETAINED PALESTINIAN SITTING ON GROUND NEAR ISRAELI SOLDIER 3.20 21. CAMERAMAN FILMING 3.22 22. MV: SOLDIER STANDING ON ROAD WITH U.N. CARS IN BACKGROUND 3.34 23. GV/ZOOM OUT: PALESTINIAN MAN SITTING ON GROUND AS U.N. CARS DRIVE BY (2 SHOTS) 3.45 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 4th April 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MAWASI, GAZA
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA9AKYBM64ZS8517O4J5J00LPAK
- Story Text: Hours after Israel pulled its troops out of West Bank
positions in Palestinian-ruled areas, journalists were invited
to join a U.N delegation on a tour of poverty-stricken
Palestinian areas in the Gaza strip where the Israeli army
remains.
A United Nations (U.N.) delegation on refugee relief on
Tuesday (March 19) toured the poverty-stricken Palestinian
area of Mawasi in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian residents of Mawasi live under an
arrangement from 1995 interim peace accords which gives Israel
security control and the Palestinians authority over civil
affairs and public order.
Since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation
in Gaza and the West Bank erupted nearly 18 months ago, the
Israeli army is the sole authority in the small Palestinian
enclave bordered on three sides by Jewish settlements with the
Mediterranean lapping at its western edge.
This month, the Palestinians of al Mawasi spent 12 days
under a round-the-clock Israeli curfew after a Palestinian
gunman from Gaza City penetrated Gush Katif and killed five
young Israelis at one of its settlements, Atzmona.
Two days ago, the area returned to its normal curfew
regime, with everyone confined to their homes from 4 p.m. to 6
a.m.
The purpose of U.N. chief of Palestinian relief Peter
Hansen tour to the area on Tuesday was to see how the people
of Mawasi were faring.
"In an area that is completely isolated where people have
been under curfew for almost two weeks, living under the
gunpoint literally, in considerable misery, where they cannot
bring
anything in or out," Hansen said.
Some 6,000 Jewish settlers and one million Palestinians
live in the Gaza Strip in cheek-to-jowl proximity, the people
of Mawasi and the Israelis of the adjacent Gush Katif
settlement
live closest of all.
Since the uprising started, the main checkpoint into
Mawasi has been sealed off for what Israel says is security
considerations, clamping down on the movement of its 7,000
residents and
fuelling resentment.
Two thirds of the Palestinians of al Mawasi are refugees,
but the situation is so grim that UNRWA hands out flour, rice
and other essentials to all the residents.
Once a month, the U.N. also sends in a medical team to
provide basic health care and treat those too old or infirm to
switch ambulances at the checkpoints and walk through.
On Tuesday, as Hansen visited, soldiers in the post spent
20 or so minutes firing off sustained practice rounds from
their weapons, seemingly out to sea, from behind camouflage
netting.
Asked by a journalist why the troops were opening fire for
no apparent reason, one soldier said: "It's nothing."
jrs/os
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