AMMAN: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned on Thursday that it faced growing challenges in running its operations as donors were set to contribute less money this year.
Agency chief Philippe Lazzarini told The Associated Press in an interview that he plans to make a new appeal for donors after the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. He said that if “we are constantly struggling financially, we will become an unreliable partner for the host countries, the communities, for the refugees, but also for our 30,000 staff.”
UNRWA was founded in the wake of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 to serve hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes. Today, their numbers have grown to some 5.9 million people, most in the Gaza Strip and Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as neighboring countries in the Middle East. The agency provides social services, education and jobs to many.
Lazzarini said the massive earthquake that devastated the region in early February, as well as an economic meltdown in Lebanon, has added to the plight of many Palestinian refugees.
Although its epicenter was in neighboring Turkiye, the earthquake caused damage to Palestinian refugee camps in northern Syria in the provinces of Aleppo and Latakia. According to UNRWA, at least 20 Palestinian refugees were killed in the quake.
“I have to say that the population I met has been deeply, deeply traumatized and terrorized by the earthquake,” Lazzarini said about refugee camps in north Syria that he visited in late March during a trip to the war-torn country.
Earlier this year, UNRWA launched an appeal for $1.6 billion, of which about $850 million is for the core budget of the organization and about $750 million for an emergency appeal.
Lazzarini said that the emergency appeal has recently been complemented by an appeal for $16 million for the February earthquake that hit Syria and Turkiye killing more than 50,000 people including over 6,000 in Syria alone.
Lazzarini said the situation in Lebanon, which is witnessing a historic economic crisis, “is extremely, extremely worrying.” Nearly 75 percent of Lebanon’s population now live in poverty as the Lebanese currency has lost more than 95 percent of its value, affecting living conditions of the country’s 6 million people, including 1 million Syrian refugees and tens of thousands of Palestinians.
“What you encounter in the camp is a lot of desperation, a lot of distress,” Lazzarini said of Lebanon’s 12 camps, adding that most of the youth that he met have only one dream which is to leave Lebanon.
Lazzarini said he does not have statistics on how many Palestinians have left Lebanon since the economic crisis began in late 2019 “but we have seen the tragedies over the last year, which also involve Palestinian refugees”
A crowded boat capsized on Sept. 21 off the coast of Tartus, Syria, just over a day after departing Lebanon. At least 94 people were killed, including Palestinians who were seeking better life in Europe.
“Anyone below the age of 30 talks about leaving the country,” Lazzarini said.
UNRWA aims to achieve youth empowerment and wants to give a sense of future prospects to hundreds of thousand of young Palestinians, many of whom are impacted by unemployment and other economic obstacles, Lazzarini said.
Speaking about the strike by UNRWA employees in the occupied West Bank higher salaries that started on March 4, Lazzarini said the move has impacted the work of the agency, with some 40,000 boys and girls being out of school and also “all our health centers are closed.”
He said that sanitation workers also are on strike and the trash and garbage is stockpiling in camps, “which is becoming also a health hazard.”
Lazzarini expressed hopes that the strike will end, saying that going on strike is a legitimate right of the UNRWA staff but that many staff members do not necessarily agree with the strike and are willing to work.
UN Palestinian refugee chief warns over lack of donors
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UN Palestinian refugee chief warns over lack of donors
- Lazzarini said the recent Turkey-Syria earthquake and the economic meltdown in Lebanon has added to the plight of many Palestinian refugees
Syrian military tells civilians to evacuate contested area east of Aleppo amid rising tensions
- Syria’s military has announced it will open a “humanitarian corridor” for civilians to evacuate from an area in Aleppo province
- This follows several days of intense clashes between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces
DAMASCUS: Syria’s military said it would open a corridor Thursday for civilians to evacuate an area of Aleppo province that has seen a military buildup following intense clashes between government and Kurdish-led forces in Aleppo city.
The army’s announcement late Wednesday — which said civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday — appeared to signal plans for an offensive in the towns of Deir Hafer and Maskana and surrounding areas, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) east of Aleppo city.
The military called on the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and other armed groups to withdraw to the other side of the the Euphrates River, to the east of the contested zone.
Syrian government troops have already sent troop reinforcements to the area after accusing the SDF of building up its own forces there, which the SDF denied. There have been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides, and the SDF has said that Turkish drones carried out strikes there.
The government has accused the SDF of launching drone strikes in Aleppo city, including one that hit the Aleppo governorate building on Saturday shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference there.
The tensions in the Deir Hafer area come after several days of intense clashes last week in Aleppo city that ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and government forces taking control of three contested neighborhoods. The fighting killed at least 23 people, wounded dozens more, and displaced tens of thousands.
The fighting broke out as negotiations have stalled between Damascus and the SDF, which controls large swaths of northeast Syria, over an agreement to integrate their forces and for the central government to take control of institutions including border crossings and oil fields in the northeast.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, which was formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkiye-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF for years has been the main US partner in Syria in fighting against the Daesh group, but Turkiye considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkiye. A peace process is now underway.
Despite the long-running US support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with the government of interim Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and has pushed the Kurds to implement the integration deal. Washington has so far avoided publicly taking sides in the clashes in Aleppo.
The SDF in a statement warned of “dangerous repercussions on civilians, infrastructure, and vital facilities” in case of a further escalation and said Damascus bears “full responsibility for this escalation and all ensuing humanitarian and security repercussions in the region.”
Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, said in a statement Tuesday that the US is “closely monitoring” the situation and called for “all parties to exercise maximum restraint, avoid actions that could further escalate tensions, and prioritize the protection of civilians and critical infrastructure.” He called on the parties to “return to the negotiating table in good faith.”
Al-Sharaa blasts the SDF
In a televised interview aired Wednesday, Al-Sharaa praised the “courage of the Kurds” and said he would guarantee their rights and wants them to be part of the Syrian army, but he lashed out at the SDF.
He accused the group of not abiding by an agreement reached last year under which their forces were supposed to withdraw from neighborhoods they controlled in Aleppo city and of forcibly preventing civilians from leaving when the army opened a corridor for them to evacuate amid the recent clashes.
Al-Sharaa claimed that the SDF refused attempts by France and the US to mediate a ceasefire and withdrawal of Kurdish forces during the clashes due to an order from the PKK.
The interview was initially intended to air Tuesday on Shams TV, a broadcaster based in Irbil — the seat of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region — but was canceled for what the station initially said were technical reasons.
Later the station’s manager said that the interview had been spiked out of fear of further inflaming tensions because of the hard line Al-Sharaa took against the SDF.
Syria’s state TV station instead aired clips from the interview on Wednesday. There was no immediate response from the SDF to Al-Sharaa’s comments.
