UNITED NATIONS: Despite a dire warning from the UN chief that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees “is on the verge of financial collapse,” donors at a pledging conference on Friday provided just $107 million in new funds — significantly less than the $300 million it needs to keep helping millions of people.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the agency known as UNRWA, said he was grateful for the new pledges but they are below the funds needed to keep over 700 schools and 140 clinics open from September through December.
“We will continue to work tirelessly with our partners, including host countries — the refugees’ top supporters — to raise the funds needed,” he said in a statement.
At the beginning of the year, UNRWA appealed for $1.6 billion for its programs, operations and emergency response across Syria, Lebanon, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and Jordan. That includes nearly $850 million for its core budget, which includes running schools and health clinics.
According to UNRWA, donors on Friday announced $812.3 million in pledges, but just $107.2 million were new contributions. The countries pledging new funds were not announced.
Lazzarini told a press conference Thursday that UNRWA needs $150 million to keep all services running until the end of the year, and an additional $50 million to start 2024 without liabilities. In addition, he said, the agency needs $75 million to keep the food pipeline in Gaza operating and about $30 million for its cash distribution program in Syria and Lebanon.
UNRWA was founded in the wake of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 to provide hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes with education, health care, social services and in some cases jobs. Today, their numbers — with descendants — have grown to some 5.9 million people, most in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, as well as neighboring countries in the Middle East.
UNRWA has faced a financial crisis for 10 years, but Lazzarini said the current crisis is “massive,” calling it “our main existential threat.”
“It is deepening, and our ability to muddle through is slowly but surely coming to an end,” he said. “The situation is even more critical now that some of our committed donors have indicated that the will substantially decrease their contribution to the agency.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a speech read by his chief of staff at the start of the pledging conference that “when UNRWA’s future hangs in the balance so do the lives of millions of Palestine refugees relying on essential services.”
Those services include education for over half a million girls and boys, health care for around 2 million people, job opportunities for young people in Gaza and elsewhere, psycho-social support for hundreds of thousands of children, and a social safety net for nearly half a million of the poorest Palestinians, he said. More than 1.2 million Palestinians also receive humanitarian assistance.
UN agency for Palestinian refugees raises just a third of $300m needed to help millions
https://arab.news/945f2
UN agency for Palestinian refugees raises just a third of $300m needed to help millions
- UNRWA chief grateful for the new pledges but they are below the funds needed to keep over 700 schools and 140 clinics open from September through December
US Embassy resumes mechanism meetings ‘at full capacity’
- Next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 25, settling debate in Lebanon over committee’s fate after postponement of January session
- Beirut hopes resumption will allow US to press Israel for concessions in return for commitments to ceasefire security terms
BEIRUT: The US Embassy in Beirut said on Friday that the mechanism committee will meet on Feb. 25 to discuss next steps on Lebanon’s security.
The US-led five-member committee was established in the wake of the Israel-Hezbollah war in late 2024.
In a statement issued jointly with US Central Command, the embassy said that “the military coordination framework, as established in the cessation of hostilities agreement outlined on Nov. 27, 2024, remains fully in place and is operating at full capacity, with the same goals, participants and leadership.”
The embassy also listed upcoming meetings dates for March 25, April 22 and May 20, saying “these engagements will continue to serve as the primary forum for military coordination among the participating parties,” and adding that the mechanism will remain the key platform for such coordination.
A committee meeting had been tentatively scheduled for Feb. 18, but the participating parties did not receive official confirmation from the US.
A Lebanese official told Arab News that the Feb. 25 meeting would be limited to military personnel, with no civilian participation. “The US Embassy’s statement emphasized the participation of all parties, including the French side,” the source added.
The mechanism committee meetings constitute the only approved channel of communication for addressing military issues related to the cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel.
The embassy’s announcement settled the debate in Lebanon over the committee’s fate after the postponement of a meeting scheduled for this month, amid Israeli pressure on Lebanon to convert civil negotiations into bilateral talks with US participation.
A Lebanese official closely following the work conducted by the mechanism committee previously told Arab News that there was “a structural crisis within the mechanism committee, specifically within the US delegation.”
The mechanism committee has held a series of meetings at the Ras Al-Naqoura border crossing. These meetings were described as technical and military in nature, and focused on establishing field communication mechanisms, addressing issues arising from violations, and ensuring continued coordination in line with the terms of the signed agreement. Civilian representatives from Lebanon and Israel were later added to the committee’s meetings.
At the beginning of December, Lebanon appointed former ambassador Simon Karam to head the Lebanese delegation to the Military Technical Committee for Lebanon. Karam attended meetings on two occasions, Dec. 3 and 19, during which he highlighted Lebanon’s demand that displaced residents be allowed to return to border villages as a prerequisite for discussing any economic buffer zone. A meeting scheduled for Jan. 14 was later postponed.
The Lebanese state hopes that the resumption of the mechanism’s meetings will enable the US to secure concessions from Israel in exchange for its commitment to the terms of the agreement to cease military operations, including the withdrawal from positions Israel still occupies inside Lebanese territory.
According to the official source, Lebanon is seeking through this request “to facilitate the next stages of the process of establishing the state monopoly on arms, particularly north of the Litani River.” The source said this followed the Lebanese army’s confiscation of illegal weapons south of the Litani, a step the US welcomed, while Hezbollah has refused to disarm north of the Litani line.
Another official source familiar with previous mechanism committee meetings said that “the Lebanese side stated that Israeli army violations on Lebanese territory provide Hezbollah with a justification to commit to its refusal to surrender its weapons.”
Lebanese army commander Gen. Rodolphe Haykal is scheduled to visit Washington next week, and will present to the Council of Ministers on Feb. 5 the next stages of the army’s plan to confine weapons between the Litani and Awali rivers.
According to the media office at the Presidential Palace, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Gen. Haykal reviewed on Friday the latest security developments in the south, amid repeated Israeli strikes and potential escalation risks along the border.
They also discussed Gen. Haykal’s meetings with US officials to “look into ways to support the army and coordinate on security issues at the border.”
Haykal also met Maj. Gen. Patrick Gauchat, head of mission and chief of staff of the UN Truce Supervision Organization at the command’s headquarters.
On Friday, an Israeli drone strike targeted a car in Seddiqin, Tyre, killing Mohammed Ahmad Youssef, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee claimed that the strike was carried out in response to “Hezbollah violations,” accusing the party of “rebuilding itself.”
Israeli reconnaissance aircraft continued to fly over Beirut and its southern suburb throughout the day, in what Lebanon considered a violation of its airspace.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese army conducted armored patrols in the border town of Yaroun on Friday morning, after the Israeli army entered the town on Thursday night.
