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Matthias Burchard of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that another week of closure at the Karni-Gaza commercial crossing added to the mounting woes facing Palestinian refugees living in Gaza. That followed a weekend that saw the killing of 14 Palestinians, including a four-year old girl yesterday, protests by farmers who had yet to receive any compensation for bird flu, and widespread public demonstrations protesting the cutting of donor funding. John Ging, Director of UNRWA operations in Gaza, warned today that if Karni remained closed we would once again be counting down to a food crisis. Nearly 800,000 of the 900,000 refugees in Gaza depended on UNRWA’s food distribution of flour, oil, sugar and other basic items. Ging stated that the clock was now ticking and the entire distribution would have to be shut down for a second time in less than a month if the Karni commercial crossing to Israel did not open immediately.
Mr. Burchard noted that UNRWA had a humanitarian emergency appeal this year for the West Bank and Gaza amounting to US$ 95.5 million. Until today, they had only received firm pledges of $17.7 million, or only 19 per cent of the amount needed. That was in addition to UNRWA’s regular regional budget, which was also facing a severe budget gap of over $132 million. UNRWA needed $360 million just to barely pay their bills. In addition, they had a project budget for building additional schools and to re-house refugees who had lost their shelters and to generally maintain and rehabilitate UNRWA infrastructure. For that budget of US$ 150 million, UNRWA had only received firm pledges of 7 per cent, or US$ 10 million. All of this came at a time when the international community was looking at UNRWA as a source of stability in the Occupied Territories and in the region. UNRWA was already seeing that refugees who had not needed UNRWA services in the West Bank and Gaza were now returning to them due to the impoverishment of the population and that had put an additional burden on UNRWA’s already strained ability to provide even basic assistance. UNRWA urgently appealed to the international community to complete their review of aid programmes to the Palestinian Territories and to provide UNRWA with the needed funding which they had pledged in New York last December.
Responding to a journalist’s query about the possibility of UNRWA receiving redirected funds from the United States or the European Union, who were withholding close to $1 billion from the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Burchard said that UNRWA had heard of those plans, but had not had anything confirmed to them in writing or in direct talks. Regarding funds from Arab countries, the Arab League were included in all UNRWA appeals, but until now the Arab States had not come forward with any pledges. Arab States, he noted, had been good in the past in providing funding for projects, but not for UNRWA’s regular programmes.
Simon Pluess of the World Food Organization (WFP) said that, as a bit of complementary information, it was worth recalling that the United States was to increase its humanitarian aid to Palestine by $245 million. That was what they had heard. The money was to be channelled through the United Nations system and aid organizations. Of that, some $30 million would be issued through WFP.
Mr. Pluess reminded journalists that, complementary to the work of UNRWA in the Occupied Territories, WFP assisted some 162,000 of the most vulnerable non-refugees living in Gaza, which was about 12 per cent of the total population. They were of course trying to respond to the critical food shortage in Gaza that had been going on for some months. WFP had managed to transport some 50 containers, or the equivalent of 1,000 tons of flour, over the weekend through the Sufa military crossing. The Karni crossing border — the main commercial terminal for exports and imports from Israel — remained closed. In addition, the United States donated some 1,200 tons of wheat flour that was right now going through the Sufa military crossing. WFP hoped that the food would alleviate the situation. The level of food stocks in Gaza were still very low. The Gaza Strip was an enclave that was fully dependent on food imports via Israel. Most bakeries, however, remained closed in the Gaza Strip because of lack of flour and people had to remain mostly on their own stocks. As the situation was prolonged the food shortage became more and more critical.
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