U.N. Orders Some Employees to Leave Mideast

JERUSALEM â€”  The United Nations on Monday ordered all its non-essential personnel and dependents evacuated from the Middle East danger zone, including Israel.

Several hundred employees and families connected with various U.N. agencies will be airlifted in the next few days from Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, officials here reported.

The departures will increase the exodus that has begun from Israel as outgoing travelers have jammed Ben-Gurion International Airport, seeking to be out of the country before the Jan. 15 deadline set by the United Nations for Iraq to pull out of Kuwait. The Iraqi regime, defying the deadline, has threatened to draw Israel into any regional conflict.

The crush has increased as several international airlines, citing high insurance rates and lack of business, have cut or reduced flights to and from Israel.

Although incoming flights may be next to empty, outgoing flights are filled, with waiting lists of several days, airline passengers reported Monday.

Israeli officials were critical of flight cancellations by Pan Am, SAS (Scandinavian), Cyprus Airlines, Polish Lot, and South African Airways, as well as reductions by British Airways, Air France and Greece’s Olympic.

Also Monday, Transport Minister Moshe Katsav urged foreign airlines to continue service to Israel. He argued that foreign airlines are bound under their terms of license to honor their schedules.

But the dropouts continued. The Italian airline Alitalia announced Monday that it is canceling flights between Israel and Italy.

Before the cancellations began, there were 23 international airlines with flights to Israel.

El Al, the Israeli carrier, has maintained a full schedule during the crisis, although some of its flights have been diverted to Eastern Europe to pick up Soviet Jews immigrating to Israel.

Insurance rates by Lloyd’s of London have soared to $145,000 for a single flight by a jumbo jet, sources said.

In addition to the plan to withdraw U.N. dependents, German, Swedish and Finnish nationals have been advised by their embassies to leave Israel because of the threat of war. Other nations are expected to issue the same advice in the next several days.

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv reported Monday that, despite rumors to the contrary, there are no immediate plans to evacuate American dependents from Israel.

The State Department is advising American travelers to proceed with caution when going to the Middle East and, if already in Israel, to avoid the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Old City.

The United Nations maintains several agencies in Israel and nearby countries, including the U.N. Truce Supervision Organization, the peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which deals with hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.

Officials said that most of the U.N. evacuees will be from the truce supervision units.

The United Nations maintains a large complex in Cyprus, where the evacuees can seek refuge if they don’t wish to go to their home countries, U.N. sources said.

Israeli officials made an effort to play down the evacuations. One of the reasons is economic. The departures of some foreigners and the cutbacks in flights come at the height of the winter tourist season.

Israeli hotel keepers say they stand to lose $60 million in the period from last September to next March.