As conditions worsen in West Bank and Gaza, UN pitches urgent bid for funds
Palestine, Economics, 2/24/2001

With continuing confrontations in the occupied territories and the resultant Israeli punitive restrictions on movement in the West Bank and Gaza, the key United Nations relief agency in the region has requested $37.2 million to help refugees there for the next three months.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is seeking the funds so that it can continue to provide emergency humanitarian assistance, with a focus on employment creation and food aid.

Speaking to donors in Amman yesterday, the Agency's Commissioner-General, Peter Hansen, noted that as the number of fatalities and casualties mounted, there had been a drastic worsening in the economic and living conditions of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza, particularly among Palestine refugees.

The Commissioner-General alluded to the main obstacles delaying and obstructing UNRWA assistance. The Israeli authorities placed new restrictions on the entry of humanitarian goods into Gaza, which increased the cost and time needed to bring medical and basic food commodities into Gaza. Israeli closures and roadblocks have also seriously affected the movement of Agency personnel, not only from and to Gaza and the West Bank, but also within both areas.

Pointing to growing unemployment, Mr. Hansen noted that "poverty has become endemic; half of the population in Gaza, and one-third of the population in the West Bank lives below the poverty line."

The Agency plans to use the new funds to create about 540,000 job opportunity days in Gaza and the West Bank in school construction, shelter rehabilitation and the repair of damaged infrastructure in camps. The emergency aid would also help provide food and cash subsidies for about 200,000 families, medical services and post-injury rehabilitation, and additional mobile medical teams to reach people in areas under siege or cut off from access to basic medical services.

UNRWA also has plans to address the longer-term impact of the crisis on school children and to compensate the pupils for the loss of school days. With the additional funding requested, the Agency hopes to develop self-learning material and distance-learning modules while offering extra classes to compensate for lost time.

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