After losing homes, it is poverty that kills Palestinians.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has said that poverty rates among Palestinian refugees in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza have reached “unprecedented levels.”
Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said that 90% of Palestinians are below the poverty line on the sidelines of the meetings of the advisory committee of the UN agency, in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Commissioner-General of “UNRWA” stated that the agency urgently needed between $50 million and $80 million “to be able to end the year and keep schools, health centers, and other basic services running.”
Lazzarini stressed that UNRWA “cannot fulfill its mandate in the coming years if the same funding continues,” adding that “the agency needs $200 million to support digital transformation and support depleted assets.”
“We are not able to continue with the same approach in light of the high costs and the increasing needs, and the agency is implementing a policy of austerity,” stressing that “it is not possible to continue providing the same quality of services in the education and health sectors.”
He warned that “in Lebanon, the situation of the Palestinian refugees has reached rock bottom, most of them live below the poverty line, and their lives lack dignity,” noting that “40 percent of children in Gaza do not receive breakfast.”
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi urged the international community to diversify UNRWA’s funding sources within the framework of the principle of burden-sharing and to call on donors to make multi-year pledges and abide by them.
