SECURITY has deteriorated to such an extent over the past year that only a few dozen international staff dare to live and work in Gaza.

Those left working for the nine United Nations agencies h live under curfew and must be back in their guarded apartments before nightfall.

After the seizure of two staff in July and August, all but twenty-five “critical and essential” UN workers have withdrawn to offices in Jerusalem and Amman. Security officials have become increasingly alarmed that foreigners are being kidnapped to win maximum attention for an array of demands.

Some gunmen have wanted the back payment of their Palestinian Authority security forces wages, the release from prison of a relative, or even the lifting of the death penalty against a family member.

In every case the authority has caved in to the kidnappers’ demands, fuelling the cycle of seizures by clans or groups of renegade gunmen who have seen the snatching of foreign staff as a quick way to resolve their difficulties.

Most kidnapping ordeals have ended within a few hours, with the hostages freed unharmed. But the seizure in September of Mohammad Ouathi, a sound engineer working for French television, set alarm bells ringing.

He was released after nine days held in chains in an underground cell where the light was left on day and night to disorientate him. His ordeal pointed to a degree of sophistication and planning hitherto unseen in Gaza kidnappings.

Staff left working in Gaza are now escorted from their homes to the office in two-car convoys by unarmed security officers known as the “Golf Team”. The team carries state-of-the-art communications equipment and has been ordered not to intervene in a kidnapping but immediately to contact the Palestinian security forces.

When UN staff travel outside Gaza City they do so in armoured vehicles to enable them to escape a hold-up.

Apartments used by the international staff lie in the city centre and are patrolled and checked regularly by members of the Golf Team.

But the security precautions provided to the UN staff are generally not available to people, such as Kate Burton, who work for smaller, independent non-governmental agencies, leaving them more at risk.

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