By Vildan Kabasakal
The United Nations Agency for Relief and Public Works for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been a target of Israeli attacks for more than 73 years while trying to cover the wounds of Palestinian refugees.
The United Nations Agency for Help and Public Works of Palestine (UNRWA), which has been the target of Israeli attacks many times since its operations began in the 1950s, including its facilities, food, health care, food service, it covers the wounds of Palestinian refugees who are forced to migrate from Israeli occupied territories with humanitarian aid such as education and shelter.
“UNRWA, which provides education, health, social services and various humanitarian aid to “registered” Palestinian refugees, operates more than 500 schools where more than 700 thousand students are educated.
Funded by voluntary contributions from UN member states, UNRWA has been the main institution providing free basic education to Palestinian refugees for over 60 years.
UNRWA provides support to approximately 5.9 million Palestinian refugees.
The decision establishing UNRWA has won the support of the conflicting parties
Following the declaration of independence in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel on May 14, 1948, and the Nekbe (Great Disaster), which forced the Palestinians to emigrate, the UN General Assembly, 19 November 1948’he established the UN Aid Facility for Palestinian Refugees (UNRPR) to provide emergency assistance to displaced Palestinian refugees.
The final solution to the failure to pursue political solutions in the Palestinian issue envisaged the establishment of a “United Nations agency designed to continue aid activities and launch employment projects.
And on December 8, 1949, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 302 (IV), which established UNRWA. UNRWA has replaced UNRPR. The resolution was supported by Israel and the Arab countries.
UNRWA began operations on May 1, 1950
UNRWA, which was established to carry out direct assistance and work programmes for Palestinian refugees, started its activities on 1 May 1950.
The Agency, which has mobilized to cover wounds in the period when more than 700 thousand Palestinians have been displaced, “Palestinian refugees “Residents between June 1, 1946 and May 15, 1948 were Palestinians and those who lost both their homes and their livelihoods as a result of the 1948 (Arab-Israel) War” while identifying as adoptive children, the descendants of Palestinian refugee men, including adopted children, are also eligible for registration.
Just a year after NRWA began its operations, in 1951 the proportion of Palestinian refugees in tents fell from 87 to 32 percent, and in 1955 UNRWA, too, he began gradually replacing tents in refugee camps with prefabricated shelters or briquettes.
The agency pioneered the use of an oral rehydration formula to treat infants with diarrhea in the area at that time. In the following years, this treatment was adopted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and became widely used around the world.
“Six Day War” established 10 refugee camps for Palestinians
The “Six Day War”, which began with Israel waging war against Egypt, Jordan and Syria on June 5, 1967, left more than 120 thousand Palestinians homeless in the war as a new disaster struck for Palestinians.
UNRWA has set up 10 camps in the region to provide shelter for displaced people, including those not registered as Palestinian refugees, after Israel invaded the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The agency was forced to leave its headquarters in Beirut in 1967
Israel destroyed Nabatiye Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon during airstrikes in 1974.
In Nabati alone, 3 per cent of the shelters built by UNRWA, which hosts more than 80 thousand Palestinian refugees, have been hit. The agency promptly provided blankets and supplies to refugees, set up an emergency nutrition program and a mobile health unit.
UNRWA had to leave its headquarters in Beirut in 1975 in 1990 due to increasing instability in the Lebanese civil war. He moved first to Jordan, then temporarily to Vienna.
In 1976, a new one was added to Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in Lebanon, about 67 thousand Palestinian refugees were displaced. During this period, UNRWA acted immediately to heal the wounds.
During the period when the total number of refugees reached 2 million, Israel occupied Lebanon in 1982, and on 16-18 September more than 3 thousand vulnerable Palestinians in Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in southern Beirut, He was murdered by far-right Christian Falangist militias under the auspices of the Israeli army.
Upon this attack, UNRWA suspended its operations in other regions and concentrated exclusively in Lebanon.
During the “First Intifada” process, which broke out in 1987 on the Gaza Strip, then spread across all Palestinian territories and continued until 1993, Israel intervened heavily and ruthlessly in opposition to the largely unarmed protests. UNRWA also stepped in to form the Emergency Fund for Extraordinary Measures for Lebanon and the Occupied Territories (EMLOT).
UNRWA, 1990’s, which was mobilized under emergency assistance for hundreds of thousands of people from Iraq and other Gulf countries to Jordan when Iraq invaded Kuwait’jordan, most of whom are Palestinian refugees and many of whom are registered Palestinian refugees, provided humanitarian assistance to about 250 thousand people with passports.
“Microfinance Department”‘s first step was taken
In 1991, UNRWA set up a unit to provide Palestinian refugees with sustainable income creation opportunities, later called the “Microfinance Department.
The Agency, which moved its headquarters to Gaza as part of the Middle East Peace Process initiated by the Madrid Conference the same year, began developing the Peace Implementation Programme and prepared to hand over its responsibilities in the occupied Palestinian territories to the Palestinian Authority.
“Also known as the “Aksa Intifada”, starting in 2000’s, the, tens of thousands of Palestinians have become dependent on worsening economic conditions during the Second Intifada period, which caused the deaths and injuries of large numbers, and the destruction of infrastructure by Israeli forces. UNRWA has launched a comprehensive emergency assistance program, including mobile health teams.
UNRWA conducted the Community Mental Health Programme (CMHP) in Gaza, a 2002 programme of psychological counseling and support to address the challenges facing Palestinian refugees.
The average infant mortality rate dropped to 2.2 percent
UNRWA, which reduced the average death rate in infants under one year of age to 2.2 percent in 2006’s regions where it operates for Palestinian refugees, said, The World Health Organization (WHO) has managed to exceed the standard set for middle-income countries.
The reconstruction of the Nahr El Bared camp was the biggest project
In the conflict between the Lebanese Armed Forces and armed groups in Nahr El Bared, the refugee camp in Tripoli, Lebanon, a large part of the camp was burned. In 2009, the estimated cost of 345 million dollars in the reconstruction of the camp was worked out, It was the largest project UNRWA has undertaken to date.
In 2009, during Israel’s land and naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, the unemployment rate reached 45.2 per cent and in 2013, 80 per cent of the population was dependent on international aid.
750 Thousand Palestinians receive food aid from UNRWA due to blockade in Gaza
The restrictions imposed by the blockade are the “basic obstacle” to the economic recovery of Palestinians, 750 thousand of whom receive food assistance from UNRWA”.
Israel has destroyed hundreds of tons of food and medicine, hitting the UNRWA warehouse
On 27 December 2008, 51 UNRWA facilities were damaged, including 7 health centres, in the “Operation of Bulk” which Israel launched into the blockade-bound Gaza Strip and described as the “most devastating attack. UNRWA warehouse in Gaza Strip hit by Israel, destroying hundreds of tons of food and medicine.
The clashes that have been going on since 2011, when the civil war in Syria began, have also affected 560 thousand registered Palestinian refugees.
Continuing to provide emergency services, UNRWA announced in December 2015 a 414-million-dollar Syria Regional Crisis Emergency Relief Call for Palestinian refugees affected by armed conflict.
The agency provided shelter, food, cash and emergency assistance to Palestinian refugees within Syria and those fleeing to Lebanon, Jordan and Gaza.
Israel’s 2014 attacks on Gaza damaged 118 UNRWA facilities
The 2014 attacks by Israel, which caused the destruction of the infrastructure of the Gaza Strip and the weakening of its economy, killed more than 2 thousand Palestinians, damaged 118 UNRWA facilities, including schools and health centers. The attack caused massive destruction in Gaza and displaced 500 thousand people.
Throughout the armed conflict, UNRWA hosted internally displaced Palestinians in 156 of its 90’s school buildings.
From 2015, UNRWA has been maintaining special protection teams throughout all of its field offices.
The United States, the Netherlands, and Switzerland have suspended their financial support for UNRWA
UNRWA suffered a severe financial crisis in early 2018 when the US froze 365 million dollars in aid to the Agency for 300 million dollars.
The Trump-led US decided to stop all support for UNRWA on August 31, 2018.
The Netherlands and Switzerland have temporarily suspended financial aid to the Agency after 2019’s 2019 press coverage of allegations of “misuse of duty” at UNRWA. The UN launched an investigation into the allegations in August 2019. Following the investigation, the post of UNRWA General Commissioner Pierre Krahenbuhl was suspended.
Since October 7, 142 employees of UNRWA have been killed and 128 facilities damaged in Israeli attacks
UNRWA has undertaken the storage and distribution of aid, albeit at a symbolic level, to Gaza, where Israel has been carrying out its attacks since October 7.
Since October 7, approximately 1.9 million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip. About 1 million 400 thousand Palestinian refugees are housed in 155 Agency facilities.
In the Israeli attacks, 128 UNRWA facilities were damaged, while 142 employees lost their lives. (AA)
