UNRWA Appeals for $1.6 Bln in Funding

FILE - Palestinian employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) take part in a protest against job cuts by UNRWA, in Gaza City, Sept. 19, 2018. Reuters

Asharq A-Awsat

11:07-24 January 2023 AD ـ 03 Rajab 1444 AH

UNRWA Appeals for $1.6 Bln in Funding

FILE - Palestinian employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) take part in a protest against job cuts by UNRWA, in Gaza City, Sept. 19, 2018. Reuters

The UN agency that delivers basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees appealed on Tuesday for $1.6 billion in funding after its head warned it was struggling to fulfill its mandate due to spiraling costs and shrinking resources.

Established in 1949 following the first Arab-Israeli war, UNRWA provides public services including schools, primary healthcare and humanitarian aid in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

"Compounding challenges over the last year including underfunding, competing global crises, inflation, disruption in the supply chain, geopolitical dynamics and skyrocketing levels of poverty and unemployment among Palestine refugees have put immense strain on UNRWA," the agency said in a statement.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told Reuters in November that the agency's financial woes could result in it no longer being able to fulfill its mandate, which last month was renewed by the UN for another three years.

Israeli Airstrike Targets Hezbollah Weapons Facility in Syria

This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (AFP)

17:13-5 November 2024 AD ـ 04 Jumada Al-Ula 1446 AH

Israeli Airstrike Targets Hezbollah Weapons Facility in Syria

This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (AFP)

The Israeli military said it conducted an airstrike on a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in Syria on Tuesday.

The military said the strike targeted the facility run by Hezbollah’s munitions unit in the Syrian town of al-Qusayr, near the border with Lebanon. It said Hezbollah had recently expanded its facilities in the area to step up weapons smuggling into Lebanon from Syria.

The strikes hit an industrial zone in al-Qusayr, according to Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a conflict-monitoring group. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria over recent years, primarily targeting government-controlled areas, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses these operations. The strikes often target Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups.

On Monday, an Israeli airstrike struck near the Sayida Zeinab suburb, south of Damascus, an area where Iran-backed groups are active. The Israeli military claimed responsibility for killing the head of Hezbollah’s military branch in Syria, whom it identified as Mahmoud Mohammed Shaheen.

For the past month, Israel has been carrying out an escalated bombardment campaign in Lebanon, aiming to cripple the Hezbollah armed group, which is allied with Syria and Iran. Israel has also launched ground incursions just across the Israel-Lebanon border, saying it aims to put an end to a year of Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel.

UNRWA Appeals for $1.6 Bln in Funding

UNRWA Appeals for $1.6 Bln in Funding

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Israeli Airstrike Targets Hezbollah Weapons Facility in Syria

Israeli Airstrike Targets Hezbollah Weapons Facility in Syria

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