April 6, 2002	Saturday	Muharram 22, 1423

GENEVA, April 5: Major humanitarian agencies accused Israel on Friday of causing deaths by preventing aid workers reaching Palestinians in the West Bank in need of food and medical assistance.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said people had died because Israeli forces were preventing agencies from doing their job.

“Because of the near total restriction of movement imposed de facto by the Israeli authorities on ICRC and PRCS (Palestine Red Crescent Society) vehicles, only a fraction of calls for help can be answered,” the ICRC said in a statement.

“For the ICRC, there is little doubt that this has resulted in unnecessary deaths,” the Swiss-run agency said.

The ICRC also protested against the “wilful and unacceptable destruction” on Wednesday of six PRCS ambulances and one ICRC Landcruiser by Israeli tanks in Tulkarem and Bethlehem.

NEWSMEN HARASSED: Israeli troops threw stun grenades to turn back foreign journalists on their way to cover US envoy Anthony Zinni’s meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Friday.

A correspondent among the 25 foreign journalists in six armoured cars saw two Israeli jeeps and an unmarked vehicle blocking the access road to Arafat’s compound in Ramallah.

The troops inside then threw stun grenades, which are used to disorient and frighten their targets by creating a loud noise and a bright flash.

As the convoy turned back, some of the journalists got out and fled on foot. Israeli border police gave chase, confiscating the identification cards of some of the journalists. A bullet hole was later discovered in the car used by the CNN crew.

4 priests leave church: Four Franciscan priests have left the besieged Church of the Nativity complex in Bethlehem and have been taken for medical treatement, a spokesman for the Italian religious order said here Friday.

Father David Jaeger told AFP that the four Franciscans were “in a very serious condition, in danger of death.”

“They have been transported out of the immediate area to receive medical care,” Jaeger said.

He said some 40 Franciscans remaining inside the besieged complex were in danger from the rising tension and lack of food.

Israeli forces have laid siege to one of Christianity’s holiest sites since Tuesday after some 200 Palestinians took refuge in the complex in the centre of Bethlehem.

In Jerusalem, Israeli General Goria Eiland confirmed that four Franciscans had left the church complex.

“Four priests managed to escape (from the church). They told us that they were forced (by the Palestinians) to stay in the building.”

The head of the order told reporters in Rome earlier Friday there were 40 priests and brothers and four nuns from his order inside the Franciscan convent in the Church of the Nativity basilica complex, and they would not leave “to avoid a massacre”.

But Father Giacomo Bini described the