People in Gaza sifting through rubbish for food, UN head says

People in Gaza are searching through rubbish to find food as Palestinians battle unprecedented levels of poverty, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said, reported by The Guardian.

Across Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza, and elsewhere, Palestinian refugees are suffering at new depths because of the pandemic, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency chief, Philippe Lazzarini. “There is despair and hopelessness,” he said in an interview.

“In Gaza, people are going through the garbage,” Lazzarini said, referring to reports from UNRWA staff in the enclave. “More people are fighting to provide one or two meals a day to their families.”

Lazzarini, an experienced humanitarian, was appointed commissioner-general of UNRWA in April and leads it at a time of deep crisis for the agency.

First is the seemingly permanent threat of financial ruin. Then there is the breakdown in the relationship with its former largest donor, the US, which claims – in line with long-running Israeli attacks on the agency – that it is “irredeemably flawed”.

Add to that the threat of coronavirus ripping through refugee camps across the Middle East, home to many of the 5.6 million Palestinians supported by UNRWA. Meanwhile, Israel’s possible annexation of the occupied West Bank looms, threatening to stifle UNRWA’s work there.

“We are constantly in crisis mode when it comes to the cashflow,” he said. “UNRWA is constantly running after the cash.”

With a typical yearly budget deficit of well over £100m, the organization of 30,000 staff is never more than four or five weeks away from running out of funds. “It’s unsettling,” he said, adding that UNRWA’s schools and health services are cutting back.

The financial crisis exploded in 2018 when Donald Trump cut up to $300m of annual donations, months after he angrily complained that the US received “no appreciation or respect” from Palestinians for the aid.

“It’s a threat, it’s a real threat,” said Lazzarini of the US cuts. “We have to take this threat into consideration.”

Trump’s aid cut led to a wave of “exceptional solidarity around UNRWA”, he said, with other global donors filling the shortfall. In fact, 2018 was UNRWA’s most successful money-raising run for its core budget in the past five years.