UNRWA Inaugurates Saudi-Funded Health Center in Gaza

UNRWA Inaugurates Saudi-Funded Health Center in Gaza
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UNRWA Inaugurates Saudi-Funded Health Center in Gaza

UNRWA Inaugurates Saudi-Funded Health Center in Gaza

Funded by Saudi Arabia, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) inaugurated Al-Sabra Health Center in Gaza City.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that UNRWA was able to build the health center with generous funding from the Kingdom through the Saudi Fund for Development.

Notably, this comes as part of an agreement signed between UNRWA and KSA in 2018 with funds worth $31 million, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

In addition to building the Al-Sabra Health Center, the agreement also provides for the construction, furnishing, equipment and maintenance of UNRWA's schools, restoration and reconstruction of more than 250 homes, and the provision of fuel for water and sanitation facilities in Gaza.

Lazzarini pointed out that Saudi Arabia is one of the most important donors to UNRWA.

He noted that over the past five years, the Kingdom has funded the construction of seven health centers in Gaza through the Saudi Fund for Development.

It has also financed the construction of a number of schools and the reconstruction of more than 1,000 completely destroyed homes.



First Flight Since Assad’s Fall Takes Off from Damascus

General Security personnel stand next to a Syrian Air airplane ahead of take-off as the airport reopens for internal flights in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
General Security personnel stand next to a Syrian Air airplane ahead of take-off as the airport reopens for internal flights in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
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First Flight Since Assad’s Fall Takes Off from Damascus

General Security personnel stand next to a Syrian Air airplane ahead of take-off as the airport reopens for internal flights in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
General Security personnel stand next to a Syrian Air airplane ahead of take-off as the airport reopens for internal flights in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

The first flight since the ouster of Syria’s president Bashar Assad took off on Wednesday from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the country’s north, AFP journalists saw.
Thirty-two people including journalists were on board the plane.

Assad fled Syria as a lightning opposition offensive wrested from his control city after city.

His army and security forces abandoned Damascus airport on December 8, and until Wednesday no flights had taken off or landed.
Earlier this week, airport staff were painting on planes the three-star independence flag that became a symbol of the 2011 uprising and which the country's new rulers have adopted.
In the terminal, the new flag also replaced the one linked to Assad's era.