Gazans plan more protests against UNRWA cutbacks

Palestinians are set to hold separate demonstrations in the Gaza Strip to voice their anger at a decision by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to cut its services in the Israeli-besieged territory.

On Monday, Mahmoud Khalaf, from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) Party, said Palestinian factions have agreed to rally next Monday in front of the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City.

According to Khalaf, Palestinians also plan to stage several sit-ins outside UNRWA offices and inside the schools that the UN agency runs in refugee camps across the impoverished coastal sliver.

Khalaf described the planned UNRWA cutbacks as “unjust,” saying the move is part of a plot to undermine the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property, from which they have been uprooted.

He said that “the alleged financial crisis in UNRWA” had been made up as a pretext to shut down the UN agency that has been looking after Palestinian refugees in the Middle East for 65 years, and to abolish Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homeland.

UNRWA said in a statement on July 25 that it was decreasing its aid to Palestinian refugees, including those living in the besieged Gaza Strip, due to a lack of funding from its international donors.

The UN agency, which usually provides health and educational services to Palestinian refugees in 58 refugee camps throughout the Mideast, said it may have to delay the start of the academic year in some 700 UNRWA-run schools for half a million students across the region.

Over the past days, Palestinian refugees in Gaza have been holding rallies to protest the planned cutbacks.

The Gaza Strip has been under a crippling Israeli siege since 2007. The blockade, which has cut off the territory from the outside world, has led to an economic and humanitarian crisis in the densely-populated enclave.

According to UNRWA, as of March 21, there were as many as 526,744 registered Palestinian refugees in nine camps in Syria. Over 1,258,550 registered Palestinian refugees are living in eight camps in Gaza, while there are more than 762,280 registered Palestinian refugees in 19 camps in the occupied West Bank.

As many as 449,957 registered Palestinian refugees are residing in 12 camps in Lebanon; and a total of 2,097,338 registered Palestinian refugees are also living in 10 camps in Jordan.

The planned cutbacks come as the people of Gaza are also grappling with repercussions of the devastating Israeli war that was waged last summer. The offensive left some 2,200 people dead and damaged infrastructure.

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