More than a million people in Gaza, who make up more than half of the population, may not have enough food by June June, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said Monday.
"Without at least an additional $ 60 million is secured by June, its ability to continue to provide food aid to more than a million refugees from Gaza will be highly challenging," UNRWA said in a press release.
The statement reads as follows:
While Muslims around the world celebrate the holy month of Ramadan, which is often characterized by ceremonial nature and breakfasts, more than half of the population of the sector depends on food aid provided by the international community. Without UNRWA secures at least an additional $ 60 million by June, our ability to continue to provide food to more than 1 million Palestine refugees in Gaza, including some 620,000 people in extreme poverty - those who can not meet their basic nutritional needs and who must live on less than $ 1, 6 per day - and about 390,000 people with absolute poverty - those who live on less than $ 3.5 per day - will be subject to significant challenges.
UNRWA is funded almost exclusively through voluntary contributions, and financial support has not matched the growth in requirements. Of the less than 80,000 Palestine refugees who were receiving social aid from UNRWA in Gaza in 2000, there are today more than one million people in need of emergency food aid and without them they can not live on their day. "This is a tenfold increase caused by the blockade that led to the closure of Gaza and its disastrous impact on the local community, in addition to successful conflicts that destroyed enemy neighborhoods and destroyed the infrastructure on the ground, as well as the ongoing Palestinian Palestinian policy crisis that began in 2007 with Hamas´ access to power in Gaza, "says Mathias Shamali, director of UNRWA operations in Gaza.
Moreover, the tragic death of a total of 195 Palestinians - including 14 UNRWA schools and the long-term physical and psychological injuries to 29,000 people during the full-year demonstrations known as the Grand return March - following three devastating conflicts in Gaza since 2009, which killed at least 3790 people and wounded more than 17,000.
A United Nations report in 2017 predicted that Gaza would become uninhabitable by the year 2020. Today, with a 53% unemployment rate among Gazans and more than 1 million people dependent on UNRWA´s quarterly food aid, the preventive humanitarian work of United Nations agencies, including UNRWA, and remittances from abroad have prevented Gaza from reaching the brink of total collapse.
At a time of great uncertainty about the future of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, UNRWA is one of the few elements of stability in a very complex environment. By continuing to carry out its mandate, the Agency remains an important lifeline in Gaza, where its services in the areas of health, education and defense of rights and dignity are indispensable for the majority of the population of 1.9 million people in the sector. What is most urgent now is the agency´s food assistance to address the food insecure of more than a million Palestine refugees.
