by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Geneva : The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA) has launched an appeal for $1.2 billion to fund vital services and life-saving aid for 5.4 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, West Bank and across the Middle East.
Speaking in Geneva on Tuesday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl explained that people’s basic needs had worsened considerably since the turn of the century.
“We provide food assistance to a million people in Gaza, which is half of the Gaza population. UNRWA provides that food assistance every three months,” Krähenbühl explained.
“That is a figure the world should be shocked about, because in the year 2000, we used to provide food assistance to 80,000. So, we’ve moved from 80,000 people on our food assistance list to one million. Why? Because the whole dynamic of the conflict and the blockade has wiped out entire sectors of the Gaza economy,” he added.
The UNRWA chief warned that alarming and expanding problems affecting Palestine refugees in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, risk further destabilizing the Middle East. He praised the generosity of member states in supporting the agency’s work, following the withdrawal of funding by the United States, historically its biggest donor by far for decades.
—AB/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Jerusalem : Italy approved on Monday an additional funding of €3.5 million for UNRWA programs to be carried out in Lebanon and in the Gaza Strip, according to a press release by the Italian Consulate in Jerusalem.
“In accordance with the well-established Italian support to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and given the serious financial difficulties that UNRWA is facing, Italy has approved an additional funding of €3.5 million for programs to be carried out in Lebanon and in the Gaza Strip,” said the statement.
“The contribution comes on top of the financial effort already set up by Italy for the benefit of the Agency. This effort, considered as a whole $14 million in 2017, allows our country to be the 14th most important donor of the agency.”
The statement said “UNRWA keeps playing an essential part by providing basic services to more than 5 million Palestinian refugees. Its activities contribute in a concrete manner to the stability of the region.”
The Italian contribution came after the United States, the largest donor with $360 million in annual aid to UNRWA, decided to stop all funding to the humanitarian agency, a step seen to punish and pressure the Palestinians to accept its terms for a settlement with Israel.
—AG/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World

The Spanish Foreign Ministry, Madrid.
Madrid : Following the US decision to end financing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Spain urged the European Union and its member states for “supplementary” efforts to bridge the ensuing void.
In a press statement issued here on Sunday, the Spanish Foreign Ministry asked Washington to reconsider the decision, taking into account that it had slashed its aid from $365 million in 2017 to $60 million at the start of 2018.
The “critical financial situation of the UNRWA caused by the decision taken by the (US President Donald) Trump administration seriously threatens the continuity of special programs in health, education and food, which directly benefit Palestinian refugees in the Middle East,” it said.
“The suppression of basic services to 3 million Palestinian refugees could have serious consequences for the stability of the region, especially in the Gaza Strip.”
The ministry said Madrid is “fully committed” to “finding joint solutions,” which will allow UNRWA to continue its work in a sustainable manner.
“Spain considers that the EU and its member states should make a supplementary effort to compensate the possible consequences of the serious decision taken by the U.S,” the statement added.
—AB/UNA-OIC