Emergency aid for Gaza’s Palestinians held up in Israel due to Lebanon conflict – ±¬ÁÏÍø 

18 August 2006 Hundreds of containers full of food for Palestinians in Gaza are still being held up in the Israeli port of Ashdod because of a backlog caused by the recent conflict in Lebanon that closed the port of Haifa, the United Nations said today.

The ±¬ÁÏÍø Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (±¬ÁÏÍøRWA) reports that nearly 300 containers with emergency food for Gaza are stuck on ships in Ashdod, ±¬ÁÏÍø spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

“That backlog is connected to the fact that a lot of these containers had to be redirected there from Haifa, which had been closed due to the fighting. Currently, some 830,000 people rely on ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA's Gaza food distributions.”

The ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA School at Rafah is also still providing shelter for 340 internally displaced Palestinians who fled Israeli shelling in southern Gaza, he added.

Also on the humanitarian front, the ±¬ÁÏÍø Children’s Fund (±¬ÁÏÍøICEF) has secured vaccines for Palestinian children through 2007, as well as education supplies for its back-to-school campaign. ±¬ÁÏÍøICEF has also provided eight generators and five water tankers to its humanitarian partners in Gaza, and stepped up its mine-awareness education and psychosocial assistance programmes, Mr. Dujarric said.