April 17, 2002	Wednesday	Safar 3, 142

BRUSSELS, April 16: Israel has wrought nearly 20 million euros ($17.61 million) in damage to Palestinian projects financed by the European Union, the European Commission said on Tuesday.

European Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Poul Nielson valued the damage at 19,282,500 euros.

“This is quite shocking. We simply don’t have more room for damage,” Nielson, the EU executive’s top aid official, told reporters.

“We don’t have any decision as to what exactly to do, so I cannot rule out further action vis-a-vis Israel on this point,” he said when asked whether the Commission would seek compensation.

“We keep doing the bookkeeping on this damage.”

The EU is the world’s largest provider of humanitarian aid. Around half the aid, 544 million euros last year, was channelled through ECHO, the EU’s aid agency, and the rest came directly from EU states.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) chief Peter Hansen joined Nielson in accusing Israel of blocking relief workers’ access in the West Bank.

“None of us can remember when we have met with as much indifference when we have protested and asked for cooperation with governments responsible and in charge as we have in this current crisis,” Hansen told the news conference.

He said Israel was less responsive to calls for humanitarian access to victims than governments had been in other war zones such as Bosnia, Chechnya, Angola and Sudan.

“We will continue to protest until everybody abides by the standards set for the international community and gives agencies the right of access that we have been denied over the past year and a half, and especially over the past two weeks,” he said.

Hansen said the humanitarian agencies had only gained access on Monday to the refugee camp in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, scene of the fiercest fighting in an Israeli military offensive begun more than two weeks ago.

Agency workers began removing the dead from the camp, the scene of mass destruction in the Israeli-led offensive launched against the Palestinians in response to suicide attacks that killed scores in Israel.—Reuters