UNRWA accuses Hamas-affiliated police of raiding a UN compound in Shati' r.c. on 2/3 and confiscating 400 food parcels and 3,500 blankets intended for the needy after UNRWA refused Hamas's request to turn the aid over to Hamas-run Social Affairs Min. Meanwhile, Israel allows 101 truckloads of humanitarian aid and commercial goods into Gaza. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts early morning house searches in Hebron, photographing homes but making no arrests; bulldozes 90 d. of Palestinian land near 3 Jewish settlement and the separation wall w. of Qalqilya; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches nr. Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, Tubas. In the East Jerusalem environs, Israeli authorities demolish 1 Palestinian home in Jabal al-Tur, 2 homes in Issawiyya as part of the project to link the E1 and Ma'ale Adumim settlement areas. (NYT, PCHR, WP, WT 2/5; PCHR 2/12)
Wednesday, February 4, 2009