The head of the UN relief and works agency for Palestine refugees
(UNRWA) warned on Wednesday that despite weathering a “truly
existential crisis” over funding last year, money to continue
operations this year in the Gaza Strip will only last until
mid-June.
Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl told the Council
it was “absolutely critical to avoid a breakdown of our food
pipeline” and called on partners – 42 of whom increased their
contributions to UNRWA last year after the United States withdrew
funding - “to actively mobilize in support of our efforts”.
He was briefing via video-link, along with the UN Special
Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process,
Nickolay Mladenov, on the overall political and humanitarian
situation surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Mr. Krähenbühl said the severe hardship endured by
Gazans after “successive armed confrontations, blockade and
violence” had been compounded for more than a year by the
thousands wounded and hundreds killed under fire
from Israeli security forces during the demonstrations at
the border fence.
“Every family in Gaza has been impacted and people speak of a
level of despair that surpasses anything previously known to
them”, especially in terms of what UNRWA calls the current
“epidemic deterioration of mental-health conditions”, he
said.
Mr. Krähenbühl said it was essential to open the next
school year on time, in August, and rehabilitating schools to
that end needed more funding. Overall,
$1.2 billlion is required through the year, he
said, matching the amount mobilized last year, highlighting an
upcoming pledging conference due to take place on 25 June in New
York.
He implored the Council to do whatever it could, to end the
political stalemate, as “every single day, we deal with
increasingly severe human consequences of this enduring
conflict”. He cited the inspiring story of 15-year-old UNRWA
student Jameela Abu Jom’a, awarded the 2019
Inspirational Messages of Peace Contest” award, backed in part by
the United States National Park Service. Her message will be
displayed in an Atlanta park for a year.
“That is what you...have allowed us to achieve and preserve. For
this you deserve the highest recognition”, he told the Council,
calling on Member States to “protect this vital effort and
sustain your collective mobilization, in support of dignity,
stability and robust multilateralism”.
‘There are no shortcuts to sustainable peace’
- Mladenov
In his briefing, UNSCO chief Mladenov, said the escalation
between Israel and militants across the border in
Hamas-controlled Gaza of recent weeks, had “once again
demonstrated the urgency of solidifying and expanding the
existing understandings on the ground”.
“We must ask ourselves, how many more years will Palestinians in
Gaza be forced to live on a pittance from the international
community, under the control of Hamas, and suffer from Israeli
closures?”
Mr. Mladenov asked how much longer Israelis would have
to run for bomb shelters as Palestinian militants’ rockets “rain
down indiscriminately from above?” He said the UN and partners
had continued trying to mitigate the impact of the crisis in
Gaza, but they were doomed to fail without resolving
intra-Palestinian division, the blockade, and “charting a course
towards the two-State solution based on long-standing
international parameters”.
“There are no shortcuts to sustainable peace” he declared.
The Special Coordinator also noted that while the focus had been
on the ebb and flow of the Gaza crisis, the occupied West Bank,
including East Jerusalem, “is of growing concern to us”. A
prolonged absence of any political progress through talks had
coincided with deteriorating living conditions.
“This, coupled with violence, settlement expansion,
demolitions of Palestinian property, and the persistent threat of
further economic decline, are creating an explosive mix that
could have serious security implications”, he added.
He condemned all attacks on Palestinian and Israeli civilians and
called on all sides to refrain from violence.
