Gaza violence scares away foreign aid, media

GAZA, Jan 19 (Reuters) Samir Skaik wanders around his almost empty beachfront hotel in Gaza wondering whether foreigners who are its livelihood will ever return.

Most of his regular guests have been scared away by a spate of kidnappings of foreign journalists and aid workers by gunmen pressing the Palestinian government for jobs or favours, or seeking ransoms from international organisations.

Security concerns have deepened since the killing of at least 30 Palestinians in violence between rival factions in Gaza after President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah called last month for new elections in his power struggle with the governing Hamas group.

''I have six customers. I think I am lucky to have any,'' said Skaik, general manager of the 22-room al-Dira hotel. ''Visitors nowadays don't stay for long. They finish their business and leave. Some don't even spend the night.'' Many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip now fear it will become a land the world forgot, a no-go zone for journalists who bring their story to the world and aid workers who help them deal with economic despair.

At least 17 foreigners have been kidnapped over the past year in Gaza. All have been released, usually within hours or days.

Security began to fall apart in Gaza shortly before the January 2006 Palestinian election and deteriorated sharply after Hamas's defeat of the long-dominant Fatah faction turned their power struggle even more bitter.

International aid organisations said they have boosted security measures and moved out some non-essential employees.

Despite the current tensions, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency UNRWA, the largest international aid organisation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, said ''there is a strategic decision that services to the population should continue''.

UNRWA media adviser Adnan Abu Hasna said 32 international employees have been relocated to Jerusalem and Jordan in the past 18 months because of Israeli military operations in Gaza and internal Palestinian violence.

He added that the current instability and the continuation of internal violence has prevented their return.

More than half of Gaza's 1.4 million inhabitants receive aid from UNRWA. The agency operates a network of food supply centres in refugee camps and towns and runs nearly 200 schools and health clinics in the territory, where the unemployment rate is around 50 per cent.

As part of the new security measures, UNRWA's remaining international staffers have been advised not to go out at night in Gaza and to keep the organisation informed at all times about their whereabouts, Abu Hasna said.

ARMOURED CARS Travel is in armoured vehicles and sometimes a police escort is needed.

''These additional security measures cost time and effort and it is time consuming,'' Abu Hasna said.

Georgios Georgantas, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza Strip, said the organisation has adopted similar precautions but has not yet asked for armoured vehicles.

''We like to believe that our security is based on our presence and our services to the local population,'' he said.

But he said additional security measures can slow operations.

Gunmen kidnapped several ICRC employees and attacked its offices in Gaza last year, prompting it to suspend operations briefly and instructing staff not to go out in the field.

''We have not had to cancel operations and we hope that we would never be in need to,'' Georgantas told Reuters.

ICRC activities include arranging for medicine to reach Palestinian hospitals, facilitate the passage of food aid during Israeli raids into areas of Gaza and helping Palestinians visit relatives jailed in Israel.

He said he does not have specific information about possible threats of kidnappings against his staff but described the situation as volatile.

Simon McGregor-Wood, chairman of the Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel said fewer foreign journalists have been going to Gaza due to the uncertain security situation.

''If kidnappings and shootings continue, people would stop going there,'' he said. ''Whenever the story is unreported, it hurts the people of Gaza.'' McGregor-Wood said the FPA had not advised foreign journalists against travel to Gaza but recommended they take security precautions and think about whether they really need to make the trip.

Those precautions often include travelling to their Gaza City offices in armoured cars after crossing from Israel.

Palestinian police at the border checkpoint warn visitors to be on alert for kidnapping attempts.

Khalil Abu Shammala, director of Ad-Dameer Association for Human Rights, said foreign donors to some of his group's projects no longer visit Gaza to follow up on activities they finance.

Reuters SSC VP0847