Türkiye plays key role in aiding Gaza: UNRWA official

By Nour Abu Aisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Türkiye is an important partner of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the director of the agency in the Gaza Strip told Anadolu in an exclusive interview.

Thomas White explained that the Gaza Strip "is hardly livable due to the difficult economic and humanitarian conditions."

He said his agency entered the new year with financial commitments estimated at about $80 million.

According to the Geneva-based NGO Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, about 1.5 million out of 2.3 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip live in poverty due to the Israeli blockade and restrictions imposed since 2006.

- Financial crisis

The UN official said the financial situation of the UNRWA was very difficult last year, stressing that it has financial obligations for this year of around $80 million that it carried with it from 2022.

The agency will launch on Jan. 24 an “emergency appeal with the general budget of UNRWA for Palestine and Syrian refugees,” according to White.

He said the financial deficit suffered by UNRWA had a clear impact on the agency's work in the Gaza Strip.

White also noted that the UN General Assembly voted at the end of 2022 to extend the mission of UNRWA for the next three years.

- Humanitarian situation

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is worsening due to the continuous Israeli blockade, White noted.

“There are huge numbers of unemployment, for example, in Jabalia camp, the poverty rate exceeds 90%,” he added.

White explained that the deteriorating economic conditions have caused a rise in "food insecurity rates,” adding: "The Gaza Strip is hardly livable."

According to a report by the Hamas-affiliated think tank Council on International Relations-Palestine, “57% of families in Gaza suffer from food insecurity.”

- Food aid

The number of beneficiaries of the food assistance provided by UNRWA to the refugees in Gaza has reached 1.1 million, White also said.

He noted that the food aid program provides only about 50% of the calories needed for one person.

The UN official talked about "the difficulty in securing food aid for refugees, specifically flour, in conjunction with the global rise in food prices in 2022."

He said his agency has succeeded in providing the required quantities through the support of the international community.

- Turkish partnership

The UN official said Türkiye is an important partner for UNRWA in providing flour as part of the food aid program, adding that the Turkish government provided flour for about 1.1 million refugees in Gaza.

“We distribute the flour provided by Türkiye during the food aid courses,” he noted.

White also expressed his agency's aspirations for "more partnership opportunities with Türkiye."

- Health crisis

Families in Gaza are becoming more vulnerable in light of the great economic pressure they are experiencing, White stressed.

The high rates of food insecurity also "led to an increase in the number of children suffering from anemia,” he added.

The UN official said the agency supports the health sector by providing primary health services on a regular basis to around 1.2 million refugees in Gaza.

White noted that “the massive spread of seasonal influenza in the Gaza Strip is a continuation of the COVID wave.”

"The economic conditions of poverty, siege, and ongoing armed conflict greatly affect the psychological situation of the population,” the UN official added.

He also noted that “42% of first-grade students in our schools suffer from mental disorders.”

- Reconstruction

The Israeli escalation last August caused the complete demolition of 25 housing units, while 80 units were partially damaged, rendering them uninhabitable, according to the Undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Gaza, Naji Sarhan.

Over the past year and a half, UNRWA presented a complete program for the rehabilitation, repair, and reconstruction of homes that were destroyed in Gaza, White said.

The UNRWA plans on reconstructing more than 7,000 Palestinian refugee homes, the official added.

* Ikram Imane Kouachi contributed to this report.