Israel News : Jerusalem Post Internet Edition :
"The United Nations decided over the weekend to suspend its construction project in the Jenin refugee camp after Palestinian gunmen threatened crews rebuilding houses destroyed during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.
Five men armed with M-16 rifles raided the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) offices in the camp on Friday to protest that the new houses were two small. The gunmen threatened to harm the UN staff if their demands for larger houses were not met.
Residents of the Jenin camp are complaining that their new houses, replacing those destroyed in Israeli incursions, are not big enough, said Sami Mshasha, a spokesman for UNRWA in Jerusalem.
Sources in the camp said they did not know to which group the gunmen belonged, although some residents identified them as members of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah.
This was the third attack of its kind on UN offices and crew in the Jenin camp in the past six months. Residents had complained that the construction work was too slow and that senior Palestinian Authority officials had stolen parts of the donations from the international community to the camp.
One of the attackers complained that the 180 square meter apartment he had been given was too small for him and his wife. 'Soon we will have children and this apartment would be too small,' he told the UN staff.
The gunman warned that he and his friends were planning to block the main street of the camp with wrecked cars if their demands were not met.
Over the past two years, UNRWA has rebuilt about 100 new apartments in the camp, and last week the first families moved into their new homes. The project includes the construction of an additional 400 apartments and the renovation of some 1000 houses.
According to UN statistics, 530 homes were destroyed in the camp during the IDF operation in 2002, which followed a series of deadly Palestinian suicide attacks against Israel.
The size of many of the new houses has been cut by 15 percent to build wider streets in the camp to allow IDF tanks to move around without causing damage to buildings. At least nine new streets, each about seven meters wide, have replaced the narrow alleyways of the camp."
"The United Nations decided over the weekend to suspend its construction project in the Jenin refugee camp after Palestinian gunmen threatened crews rebuilding houses destroyed during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.
Five men armed with M-16 rifles raided the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) offices in the camp on Friday to protest that the new houses were two small. The gunmen threatened to harm the UN staff if their demands for larger houses were not met.
Residents of the Jenin camp are complaining that their new houses, replacing those destroyed in Israeli incursions, are not big enough, said Sami Mshasha, a spokesman for UNRWA in Jerusalem.
Sources in the camp said they did not know to which group the gunmen belonged, although some residents identified them as members of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah.
This was the third attack of its kind on UN offices and crew in the Jenin camp in the past six months. Residents had complained that the construction work was too slow and that senior Palestinian Authority officials had stolen parts of the donations from the international community to the camp.
One of the attackers complained that the 180 square meter apartment he had been given was too small for him and his wife. 'Soon we will have children and this apartment would be too small,' he told the UN staff.
The gunman warned that he and his friends were planning to block the main street of the camp with wrecked cars if their demands were not met.
Over the past two years, UNRWA has rebuilt about 100 new apartments in the camp, and last week the first families moved into their new homes. The project includes the construction of an additional 400 apartments and the renovation of some 1000 houses.
According to UN statistics, 530 homes were destroyed in the camp during the IDF operation in 2002, which followed a series of deadly Palestinian suicide attacks against Israel.
The size of many of the new houses has been cut by 15 percent to build wider streets in the camp to allow IDF tanks to move around without causing damage to buildings. At least nine new streets, each about seven meters wide, have replaced the narrow alleyways of the camp."
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