MIDDLE EAST: A 30-Car convoy of international officials gained entry to the besieged West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday for the first time since Israel launched its military campaign on March 29th.
In the convoy were European consuls and respresentatives to the Palestinian National Authority, officials from the European Commission and teams of evaluators from the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Bank. They approached Ramallah from the eastern checkpoint at Beitil where they were held for 25 minutes before being allowed to proceed.
Since Israel withdrew its troops and tanks early on Sunday most of the cars destroyed during the reoccupation have been cleared away and repairmen have been trying to restore water and electricity to neighbourhoods to which services were cut. But only about one-third of the people normally out and about on a Monday morning circulated, perhaps because Israeli soldiers drove round in trucks warning residents that the curfew was still in force.
Ireland's diplomatic representative, Mrs Isolde Moylan, told The Irish Times that she found her offices, off limits for three weeks, untouched. The guards assigned to the building - which houses several international agencies - remained on the job. She hopes that from now on her mission will be able to operate normally. Mrs Moylan and other European officials visited the Palestinian Ministry of Planning and International Co-operation where the Deputy Director, Mr Samih al-Abid, appealed for both emergency and reconstruction aid and asked his guests to visit all the ministries to assess damage.
At the Ministry of Education, the Europeans met Dr Naim Abu Hummos, the deputy minister - the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, is the Education Minister. He told them that about half his staff had turned up in spite of the fact that virtually all of their equipment was looted and their records destroyed. Despite its losses, the ministry is determined to extend the academic year to enable students sit exams so they can move on or graduate.
Although 42 schools have been written off and their pupils must be reassigned, the rest reopened yesterday, with 10 per cent attendance. Many teachers could not reach their classrooms. Two were reportedly shot and injured in the Hebron area in the southern West Bank.
Mrs Moylan said that "all the data had gone" in the Irish-funded system for recording exam results. "The system can be got up and running although the information will have to be reprogrammed."
The consuls' return to Jerusalem was delayed for two hours at the checkpoint. Mrs Moylan said she had to wait for only 20 minutes because she did not depart with the main convoy.
Ten peace activists - nine French and one Brazilian - who had been in the presidential compound since March 31st left yesterday and were detained by the Israeli authorities. At least 19 foreign volunteers remain as "human shields". On Sunday, two Britons, two US citizens, one Frenchman and one Dane managed to get into the compound by evading surrounding Israeli troops and ducking under the coils of barbed wire blocking the entrance.
