One fifth of Palestinian children 'are chronically hungry'

The Israeli re-occupation of West Bank towns is on the verge of causing a humanitarian crisis among Palestinians, diplomats and aid agencies are warning.

As many as a fifth of Palestinian children are suffering acute malnutrition, according to the preliminary results of a new survey by an American aid organisation.

Seventy per cent of Palestinians now live on less than $2 (£1.30) a day, according to a new figure that is being circulated in Israel.

So pressing is the concern that fears of a humanitarian crisis were raised at the last meeting of the so-called Middle East quartet of the US, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union.

The US ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, told the Israeli authorities this week that the situation in the occupied territories was "a humanitarian disaster".

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, is so concerned that he recently telephoned the UN secretary- general, Kofi Annan, and asked him to do something to alleviate the situation.

Israeli officials are concerned about the effect a series of forthcoming reports on the humanitarian situation could have for Israel's image.

The preliminary results of the first report, by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) are already being widely discussed here, though they have not been officially released. A Palestinian website has published some of the details.

The findings say 30 per cent of children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition and 21 per cent from acute malnutrition – a massive increase compared to a survey for the same agency in 2000 when the figures were 7.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively.

The agency says 30 per cent of the 3.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip now rely on aid organisations for their daily food, and the number is increasing rapidly. They say there is a growing risk of an outbreak of a serious disease such as cholera.

The preliminary results are based on a survey of about 300 Palestinian households. The final findings will be based on 1,000 households, and the figures are thought to be lower, but still a drastic increase on the situation before the intifada began.

The United Nations mission here is one of several organisations about to publish its own report, and it is expected to be equally damning.

The Israeli authorities have moved to pre-empt criticism by rushing through a series of measures to alleviate the situation. They are reissuing work permits to Palestinians to cross from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and work in Israel.

The Israelis had withheld about $600m of tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, saying they would be used to fund militants.

This week they started to release some of the money, and Mr Sharon quietly dropped his insistence on a US team monitoring how the money was spent. The Israelis are also talking about withdrawing from Bethlehem and Hebron. The United Nations agency for refugees in the occupied territories, UNRWA, says it now feeds 217,000 families in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, compared to only 11,000 before the outbreak of the intifada.

The Palestinian economy is in ruins after months of closures and blockades by the Israeli authorities who say they are the only way to stop militants from getting into Israel to stage attacks.

Palestinian workers have been prevented from travelling from the West Bank or Gaza Strip to Israel; Palestinian farmers and manufacturers have been unable to get their produce to shops in Israel.

In the past couple of months the situation has deteriorated drastically, with the Israeli army reoccupying Palestinian towns in the West Bank and placing them under 24-hour curfew, meaning Palestinians cannot work or send their children to school.

Although some reports says as many as 70 per cent of Palestinians now live on less than $2 a day, the World Bank, to which the figure has been wrongly attributed, says its worst case scenario is 62 per cent. One aid worker said: "This is not like living on $2 a day in a Third World economy in Africa. These people have to pay Israeli prices.

"The closures and curfews have been going on for some time now, and people have exhausted the money they can draw on from relatives and connections outside."