December 28, 2002	Saturday	Shawwal 23, 1423

BODROS (West Bank): During the 1991 Gulf War Israel provided Palestinians in the West Bank village of Bodros, a few kilometres east of Tel Aviv, with gas masks to protect against an Iraqi biological weapon attack.

But this time around, with the West Bank reoccupied almost entirely by Israeli troops, the Jewish state has not yet taken measures to protect the Palestinian civilian population.

“We are not included in any preparations against an attack,” said village resident Ahmed Abdel Karim.

In 1991 “Israel provided gas masks to all people aged over 16” in the village, which counts 1,400 residents, added Karim.

Masks were also provided to residents of neighbouring towns near the green line or border marking off Israel from the West Bank.

Residents have been informed by the media of Israel’s moves to provide its own citizens with gas masks.

Recently, Israel has stepped up preparations for a possible Iraqi strike similar to the Scud missile attacks of the 1991 US-led Gulf War which killed two people and injured hundreds of others.

Palestinian Labour Minister Ghassan Khatib said the reoccupation of self-rule areas since mid-June prevents the Palestinian Authority from taking measures to protect its population, adding however that Palestinians consider Israel a bigger threat than Iraq.

“We believe that the main danger comes from Israel, which we believe, will take advantage of a war to threaten us,” Khatib said.

“The (Palestinian) Authority has contacted international parties to ask for protection (against Israel), in particular for the presence of an international force in the territories,” he added.

Palestinian officials fear that in the case of a US-led strike against Iraq, Israel will move to reoccupy what is left of the West Bank and completely cut off Palestinian towns from each other.

Lawyer Nasser al-Rayes, a human rights activist, said it was Israel’s responsibility as “an occupying power” to protect Palestinians from a possible Iraqi chemical or biological weapons attack.

“In line with the Geneva Conventions, which Israel has ratified, it is necessary to protect the Palestinian civil population under occupation,” he said.

During the 1991 Gulf War, Palestinians largely supported Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who took up their cause and threatened to destroy Israel before his forces were driven out of Kuwait by a US-led coalition.

Israel said on Thursday it would distribute 60,000 gas masks to Palestinians living in all “C” areas, which fall under Israeli security and administrative control according to the 1993 Oslo peace accords.

“These masks will be taken from army stocks and distributed to Palestinians living in sector C of the West Bank and Gaza territories,” said Colonel Eitan Ben Shemesh, a senior official at Home Front Command.

The masks, however, will only be distributed if a state of emergency is declared in Israel.

However, Israel has not commented on whether it would distribute gas masks to all other areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that fall under Palestinian administrative control.—AFP