PARIS, Dec 4: France has criticized Israel for destroying a UN World Food Programme warehouse in Gaza that was meant to keep food supplies for the Palestinian refugees.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau noted that “we are gravely preoccupied by the destruction by the Israeli Army of the foodstuffs that are stocked in a Gaza warehouse of the United Nations World Food Programme.”

“At a moment when the humanitarian situation has become seriously degraded in the Palestinian territories, a situation aggravated by months of encirclement, we demand that the Israeli authorities undertake a thorough investigation into these events and that they rapidly repair the damage that has been caused.”

The spokesman noted that a demand for a governmental inquiry and for reparations had also been sent to the Israeli government by the United Nations Secretary-General and by the World Food Programme, a specialized agency of the UN.

In reply to a question about Egyptian allegations of the changed French stand on the Middle East had “encouraged” Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to continue his policy of destroying Palestinian areas,” Mr Rivasseau replied by remarking that “we think today that what is essential is the humanitarian situation of the Palestinian population in the Gaza strip.”

“And,” he continued, “there having been an urgent humanitarian situation (in the Palestinian territories), it’s for this very reason that the World Food Programme of the United Nations had sent a stock of foodstuffs to Gaza that the UN felt indispensable to the Palestinian population. What is most important today, as far as we are concerned, is that these stocks of food (destroyed by Tsahal) be immediately replenished by the Israeli authorities.”