Homes built by UN with Arab money

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• published: 21 Jul 2015
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1. Jenin camp as seen from a ridge 2. Various of new houses 3. New alleyway 4. UN delegation arriving 5. Residents holding large Palestinian flag in street 6. Palestinian flag hanging on side of building 7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Peter Hansen, head of UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) "There has been ongoing conflicts in and around the area where we are working. The Israelis have made incursions. Of course they have to react to their security problems and it has just been a nightmare for the staff on the ground here. We've had a staff member killed by an Israeli sniper but we have also had angry residents in here shooting in this compound and it's been difficult for the staff." 8. Sign behind fence reading "UNRWA Jenin Camp" 9. Hansen talking to reporters 10. Interior of conference hall with representatives of United Arab Emirates standing 11. Various of Hansen sitting with representatives sponsoring project 12. Palestinians walking in streets were new houses were built STORYLINE: The United Nations handed over the keys on Thursday to some of the more than four hundred houses it's building in the Jenin refugee camp on the West Bank. Peter Hansen, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the body that administers Palestinian refugee camps, was on hand for the official unveiling of the trim two-, three-, and four-storey homes gleaming with fresh yellow and cream paint. The centre of the refugee camp, one of the most militant and anarchic on the West Bank, was flattened in a fierce battle between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in April 2002, when 52 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed. Huge Israeli bulldozers moving down the narrow streets shaved the fronts off many buildings, leaving them uninhabitable. Hundreds of homes were reduced to rubble, and 2,000 people were made homeless. The Jenin raid was part of "Operation Defensive Shield," launched after 29 Israelis were killed in a suicide bombing carried out by a Jenin resident. To rehabilitate the neighbourhood, known now as "Ground Zero" after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Centre towers, UNRWA built the houses with US 27 million dollars from the United Arab Emirates Red Crescent. Britain provided project management and Swiss and Swedish sappers cleared the ground of unexploded shells and bombs. Seventy apartments have been built so far, and more than 1,000 damaged houses have been repaired. At least nine alleyways have been widened significantly to ensure that new homes lining them are not damaged by Israeli armoured vehicles in any future operation, a UN worker said on condition of anonymity. Hansen said it had been a difficult undertaking and described the two years it took as "a nightmare for the staff on the ground." The first British project manager, Ian Hook, was shot dead by Israeli troops during fighting in the camp in November 2002, and scores of work days were lost because of Israeli army blockades and incursions. Thursday's completion ceremony included a rare visit to the West Bank by the UAE Red Crescent head, Khalifa Nasser Alswaidi. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/345e1c7f2d2f4747c11ddf009f84c9f6 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork