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UN experts arrive in West Bank to help coordinate relief effort

UN experts arrive in West Bank to help coordinate relief effort

The United Nations today announced that it has dispatched a team of disaster specialists to the West Bank to help coordinate the humanitarian response to the current emergency.

Five members of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team arrived in the West Bank yesterday, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which is sending a total of seven experts to the area at the request of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Members of the team, who visited Jenin and Nablus today, are seeking to identify sites where the UN can erect some 800 tents for people who have recently been rendered homeless by fighting in the Jenin camp. The team will also determine the level of resources necessary to support the displaced population and the rehabilitation and reconstruction of that camp, OCHA said.

On arrival yesterday, team members met with representatives of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the World Bank and UNRWA.