West Bank poverty may double over COVID pandemic

RAMALLAH: Poverty in the occupied West Bank may double as Palestinians are hit by the coronavirus, the World Bank warned Monday, just weeks before Israel aims to kick-start plans to annex parts of the territory. The United Nations has warned that such a move by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would stifle financial and aid flows to the Palestinians and “most likely trigger conflict”. Israel may start the annexation process as soon as July 1 with the support of US President Donald Trump, who in January published a peace plan that was roundly rejected by the Palestinians.

The UN warned in a report Sunday that, without improved relations between the two sides and if annexation goes ahead, “the achievements of the Palestinian government over the last quarter century will fade. “The peace and security situation will worsen, and a hardened and more extremist politics on both sides will inevitably result,” it said. Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki on Monday said that annexation was “tantamount to an act of aggression”. “This is really a declaration of war,” against Palestinian aspirations, he said.

And in an apparent reference to potential Palestinian unrest, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz told the army “to expedite military preparedness ahead of political steps on the agenda in the Palestinian arena”, said a statement from his office. In recent weeks some Israeli commentators have cast doubt on whether the annexation would actually go ahead, saying that the military had so far not been told to prepare contingency plans. Prospects of annexation appeared to grow after Netanyahu last month forged a unity government following more than a year of political deadlock, and as both Israel and the Palestinian territories are assessing the impact of the pandemic.

The Palestinian territories have seen low infection rates after acting quickly to curtail the spread of COVID-19, with three deaths out of 450 cases registered among some five million residents in Gaza and the West Bank. But the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) financial situation is “expected to become increasingly difficult” due to loss of income and increased spending on healthcare and other areas, the World Bank said in a report. — AFP

RAMALLAH: Palestinians gather at a market in the West Bank city of Ramallah, after the authorities relaxed some of the restrictive measures that had been imposed in a bid to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. — AFP