BEIRUT: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it has halted cash assistance to 20,000 Syrian families in Lebanon due to a shortage of international aid.
Some 20,000 “more needy” Syrian families will receive cash assistance instead, UNHCR spokeswoman Lisa Abu Khaled told Arab News. “We’re making tough decisions, but we have to deal with limited resources,” she said.
The spokesman for Syrian refugees in Arsal, Lebanon, said about 10,000 of them received text messages from the UNHCR saying they will be removed from its cash assistance program from November.
“This will be a disaster for these families, who are already living under the poverty threshold and have no other resources apart from what they get from the UNHCR,” he told Arab News.
Lebanon’s state minister for refugee affairs, Mouin Merehbi, warned on Thursday that the shortage of international aid will worsen the circumstances of Syrian refugees in his country.
The rise in tensions between them and Lebanese host communities is due to “many factors, including pressure on public services and employment competition,” he told the new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Lebanon, Chris Jarvis.
Meanwhile, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report published on Thursday said: “Millions of dollars in aid money pledged to get Syrian refugee children in school last year did not reach them, arrived late, or could not be traced due to poor reporting practices.”
The report noted the lack of transparency in financing the education of Syrian refugees. It said HRW “followed the money trail from the largest donors to education in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan, the three countries with the largest number of Syrian refugees, but found large discrepancies between the funds that the various parties said were given and the reported amounts that reached their intended targets in 2016. The lack of timely, transparent funding contributed to the fact that more than 530,000 Syrian schoolchildren in those three countries were still out of school at the end of the 2016-2017 school year.”
The report added: “Donors and host countries have promised that Syrian children will not become a lost generation, but this is exactly what is happening. More transparency in funding would help reveal the needs that aren’t being met so they could be addressed and get children into school.”
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UNHCR stops cash aid to 20,000 Syrian families in Lebanon
UNHCR stops cash aid to 20,000 Syrian families in Lebanon
Trump tells Hamas to proceed with ‘full and immediate’ disarmament
WEST PALM BEACH: US President Donald Trump on Sunday urged Hamas to move forward with disarmament under his plan for postwar Gaza, and said members of his so-called “Board of Peace” had pledged $5 billion to the Palestinian territory’s reconstruction.
“Very importantly, Hamas must uphold its commitment to Full and Immediate Demilitarization,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, ahead of a February 19 meeting of the board in Washington.
Disarmament is a key part in the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire plan sealed in October between Israel and the Palestinian militant group to end the war triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023.
The United Nations endorsed the plan in November.
The second phase stipulates that Israeli forces gradually withdraw from Gaza and Hamas should disarm, with an international stabilization force deployed to ensure security.
Hamas has repeatedly said that disarmament is a red line, although it has indicated it could consider handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian governing authority.
Both sides accuse each other daily of ceasefire violations.
Although originally intended to oversee Gaza’s rebuilding, the charter for the “Board of Peace” does not seem to limit its role to the Palestinian territory.
“The Board of Peace has unlimited potential,” Trump said Sunday in his post.
After an initial meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, the board is due to meet Thursday in the US capital.
Countries have been asked to pay $1 billion for permanent membership of the board, and the invitation for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country invaded Ukraine in 2022, has drawn criticism.
Key US allies including France and Britain have expressed doubts.
Trump said the $5 billion in pledges by member states would be formally announced then, and that members also “have committed thousands of personnel to the International Stabilization Force and Local Police to maintain Security and Peace for Gazans.”
Trump has said the organization will work “in conjunction” with the United Nations.
“The Board of Peace will prove to be the most consequential International Body in History,” he said.
Under the ceasefire plan, a Palestinian technocratic committee has also been set up with a goal of taking over governance in the battered Gaza Strip.
“Very importantly, Hamas must uphold its commitment to Full and Immediate Demilitarization,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, ahead of a February 19 meeting of the board in Washington.
Disarmament is a key part in the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire plan sealed in October between Israel and the Palestinian militant group to end the war triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023.
The United Nations endorsed the plan in November.
The second phase stipulates that Israeli forces gradually withdraw from Gaza and Hamas should disarm, with an international stabilization force deployed to ensure security.
Hamas has repeatedly said that disarmament is a red line, although it has indicated it could consider handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian governing authority.
Both sides accuse each other daily of ceasefire violations.
Although originally intended to oversee Gaza’s rebuilding, the charter for the “Board of Peace” does not seem to limit its role to the Palestinian territory.
“The Board of Peace has unlimited potential,” Trump said Sunday in his post.
After an initial meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, the board is due to meet Thursday in the US capital.
Countries have been asked to pay $1 billion for permanent membership of the board, and the invitation for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country invaded Ukraine in 2022, has drawn criticism.
Key US allies including France and Britain have expressed doubts.
Trump said the $5 billion in pledges by member states would be formally announced then, and that members also “have committed thousands of personnel to the International Stabilization Force and Local Police to maintain Security and Peace for Gazans.”
Trump has said the organization will work “in conjunction” with the United Nations.
“The Board of Peace will prove to be the most consequential International Body in History,” he said.
Under the ceasefire plan, a Palestinian technocratic committee has also been set up with a goal of taking over governance in the battered Gaza Strip.
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