KUWAIT CITY: Officials from the UN refugee agency and Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development have inked a deal to assist refugees and internally displaced people throughout the Middle East and North Africa region.
The main aim of the memorandum of understanding will be to promote cooperation between the UN High Commissioner for Refugees organization and the development fund in responding to the humanitarian needs of vulnerable refugees, IDPs, and host communities, the Kuwait News Agency reported on Thursday.
UNHCR representative Nisreen Rubaian said that under the terms of the agreement financing and technical backing would be provided for small- and medium-sized private institutions that employed Arab refugees and IDPs in host countries and communities.
The MoU would also contribute to bolstering and cementing communication between both sides, while furthering the exchange of information and expertise, and the organization of joint activities for supporting displaced people and highlighting their needs, Rubaian added.
She noted that ongoing conflicts and recent natural disasters had contributed toward IDP numbers reaching historic levels.
Rubaian said emergency humanitarian aid for refugees and internally displaced people was as important as programs that aimed to empower them, give them basic life skills, and provide livelihood opportunities that invested in individuals in a sustainable way to help them overcome daily living challenges, especially in small- or medium-sized enterprises that were the nucleus of independence and self-reliance for refugees.
UN, Arab development fund agreement to assist refugees, displaced people in MENA region
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UN, Arab development fund agreement to assist refugees, displaced people in MENA region
- Deal to provide financing, technical backing for small, medium-sized private institutions employing Arab refugees: UNHCR representative
- MoU to help bolster, cement communication between both sides
Medical charity ‘may have to halt Gaza operations in March’
- MSF called this demand a “scandalous intrusion” but Israel says it was needed to stop extremists from infiltrating into humanitarian structures
PARIS: Banned from the Gaza Strip with 36 aid bodies, medical charity Doctors Without Borders said on Saturday it will have to end its operations there in March if Israel does not reverse its decision.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Israel confirmed on Thursday that it was barring 37 major international humanitarian organizations from entering the Gaza Strip, accusing them of failing to provide the list of their employees’ names, which is now officially required for “security” reasons.
FASTFACT
MSF has approximately 40 international staff in the Gaza Strip and employs 800 Palestinian staff across eight hospitals.
MSF called this demand a “scandalous intrusion” but Israel says it was needed to stop extremists from infiltrating into humanitarian structures.
“To work in Palestine, in the occupied Palestinian territories, we have to be registered ... That registration expired on Dec. 31, 2025,” said Isabelle Defourny, a physician and president of MSF France, on France Inter.
“Since July 2025, we have been involved in a re-registration process, and to date, we have not received a response. We still have 60 days during which we could work without being re-registered, and so we would have to end our activities in March,” if Israel maintains its decision, she said.
MSF has approximately 40 international staff in the Gaza Strip and employs 800 Palestinian staff across eight hospitals.
“We are the second-largest distributor of water (in the Gaza Strip). Last year, in 2025, we treated just over 100,000 people who were wounded, burned, or victims of various traumas. We are second in terms of the number of deliveries performed,” the president of MSF France said.
According to her, the Israeli decision is explained by the fact that NGOs “bear witness to the violence committed by the Israeli army” in Gaza.
The UN chief “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in the statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
