2024 RT Amination Banner.gif

China Daily

Asia Pacific> Asia News> Content
Monday, December 17, 2018, 17:57
UN, Palestinians launch humanitarian appeal after funding cuts
By Reuters
Monday, December 17, 2018, 17:57 By Reuters

In this Aug 8, 2018 photo, Palestinians receive aid at a United Nations food distribution center in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

JERUSALEM – The United Nations and the Palestinian Authority on Monday appealed for US$350 million in humanitarian relief for Palestinians next year, saying that they needed more but had to be realistic in the face of "record-low" funding.

The 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan outlined 203 projects to be carried out by 88 different groups, including UN agencies and non-governmental organizations.

Humanitarian actors are facing unprecedented challenges, including record-low funding and a rise in attacks to delegitimize humanitarian action. 

Jamie McGoldrick, UN humanitarian coordinator in the Gaza Strip

The plan prioritized 1.4 million Palestinians most in need of food, healthcare, shelter, water and sanitation, said Jamie McGoldrick, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem.

"Humanitarian actors are facing unprecedented challenges, including record-low funding and a rise in attacks to delegitimize humanitarian action," he said in a joint statement issued on Monday, ahead of the appeal's launch in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

READ MORE: UN seeks new funding pledges for Palestinian refugees

Although "much more assistance is needed", McGoldrick said, the plan was "reflecting what we can realistically accomplish in this highly constrained context".

Over the past year, the United States has slashed its funding to the Palestinians, including to the UN agency that provides services to 5 million Palestinian refugees.

The US promised US$365 million to the agency in2018, but paid only a first instalment of US$60 million before announcing in August that it would halt all future donations.

The move was widely seen as a means of pressuring the Palestinian leadership to enter peace negotiations with Israel.

The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank,Gaza and East Jerusalem – territories that Israel captured and occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

US-brokered peace talks between the sides collapsed in2014 and a bid by US President Donald Trump to restart them has so far showed little progress.

ALSO READ: US slammed for withholding Palestinian refugee funds

Around 77 percent of the funds sought in the 2019 plan would go to Gaza, the appeal organizers said, because the densely populated coastal strip faced a "dire humanitarian situation" after years of an Israeli-led blockade, internal Palestinian political divisions and casualties from demonstrations and recurring hostilities.

"The humanitarian context in the oPt (Occupied Palestinian Territories) is still deteriorating due to the Israeli occupation violations in a time of lack of resources and declining funds because of the politicization of the humanitarian aid,” Palestinian Social Development MinisterI brahim Al-Shaer said in the statement.

Share this story

CHINA DAILY
HONG KONG NEWS
OPEN
Please click in the upper right corner to open it in your browser !