Palestinian schools, health centres at risk if funding gap not plugged

NEW YORK: A UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees said schools and health centres are at risk if it is unable to plug a US$185 million funding gap needed to keep operating until the end of the year, the agency’s head said.

“Currently we have money in the bank will last I presume somewhere into mid October,” said Pierre Krahenbuhl, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in New York, where world leaders are attending the annual UN General Assembly.

“But it’s clear that we still need approximately US$185 million to be able to ensure that all of our services, education system, health care, relief and social services and our emergency work in Syria and Gaza in particular can continue until the end of the year,” Krahenbuhl said.

The United States last month announced a halt in its aid to UNRWA, calling it an ‘irredeemably flawed operation’, a decision that further heightened tensions between the Palestinian leadership and the Trump administration.

UNRWA provides services to about 5 million Palestinian refugees across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza.

Most are descendants of some 700,000 Palestinians who were driven out of their homes or fled fighting in the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation.

The growing refugee count was cited by Washington, UNRWA’s biggest donor, in its decision to withhold funding.

Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, has been critical of the UN’s count of Palestinian refugees.

She has also questioned the ‘right of return’ to Israel, claimed by the Palestinians as part of any eventual peace settlement. — Reuters