The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the Nakba,the 1948 Palestine War,and subsequent conflicts,as well as their descendants,including legally adopted children. As of 2019,more than 5.6 million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA as refugees.
Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine,and their descendants,who fled or were expelled from their country,village or house over the course of the 1948 Palestine war and during the 1967 Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refugees live in or near 68 Palestinian refugee camps across Jordan,Lebanon,Syria,the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 2019 more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations.
Camps were set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan,Lebanon,Syria,the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA,who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War or in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967,and their patrilineal descendants. There are 68 Palestinian refugee camps,58 official and 10 unofficial,ten of which were established after the Six-Day War while the others were established in 1948 to 1950s.
Issues relating to the State of Israel and aspects of the Arab–Israeli conflict,and more recently the Iran–Israel conflict,occupy repeated annual debate times,resolutions and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948,the United Nations Security Council,has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict as of January 2010.
Peter Hansen is a Danish diplomat who was commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from 1996 to 2005.
Pierre Krähenbühl is director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),the organization’s second-highest-ranking position,a role he began in April 2024. He previously served as ICRC’s Director of Operations from 2002 to early 2014.
Issues relating to the State of Palestine and aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict occupy continuous debates,resolutions,and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948,the United Nations Security Council,as of January 2010,has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict.
Jalazone is a Palestinian refugee camp in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate,located 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) north of Ramallah and adjacent to the village of Jifna to the north,Deir Dibwan to the east,Bir Zeit to the west and the Beit El Israeli settlement to the southeast.
The restrictions on movement and goods in Gaza imposed by Israel date to the early 1990s. After Hamas took over in 2007,Israel significantly intensified existing movement restrictions and imposed a complete blockade on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Gaza Strip. In the same year,Egypt closed the Rafah crossing point. The blockade's current stated aim is to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza;previously stated motivations have included exerting economic pressure on Hamas. Human rights groups have called the blockade illegal and a form of collective punishment,as it restricts the flow of essential goods,contributes to economic hardship,and limits Gazans' freedom of movement. The blockade and its effects have led to the territory being called an "open-air prison".
The al-Fakhura school shelling was an Israeli military strike that took place during the Gaza War on 6 January 2009 near a United Nations-run school in the Jabalia Camp in the Gaza Strip. According to the UN and several non-governmental organizations (NGOs),more than 40 people were killed. Israel reported the death toll as nine Hamas militants and three noncombatants with senior IDF officers stating that the death toll published by Hamas was "grossly exaggerated". Israel stated it fired on the school in response to militant gunfire believed to be coming from al-Fakhura. A UN inquiry said that there was no firing from within the school and there were no explosives within the school,but could not establish if militants fired from the vicinity of the school.
John Ging,an Irish national,was appointed as Director of the Operational Division at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in New York in February 2011. He oversaw the management of all OCHA field operations worldwide. On behalf of the Emergency Relief Coordinator,he was the day-to-day focal point for supporting Humanitarian Coordinators. Ging was also the lead adviser to the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs on operational decision-making.
The Hamas–UNRWA Holocaust dispute erupted on 31 August 2009 following a perception in the Gaza Strip that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) planned to include a course on human rights that speaks about the Holocaust in the eighth-grade curriculum of preparatory schools it runs in the territory. The militant Islamic movement Hamas,which partially controls the Gaza Strip,protested,calling the Holocaust "a lie made up by the Zionists" and demanding the removal of the offending content from the curriculum. Some officials of the United Nations agency initially responded by denying that it teaches the subject of the Holocaust in its schools or that it plans to teach it in its new curriculum. This denial drew criticism from various groups and individuals.
The 2014 Israeli shelling of UNRWA Gaza shelters were seven shellings at UNRWA facilities in the Gaza Strip which took place between 21 July and 3 August 2014 during the Israeli-Gaza conflict. The incidents were the result of artillery,mortar or aerial missile fire which struck on or near the UNRWA facilities being used as shelters for Palestinians,and as a result at least 44 civilians,including 10 UN staff,died. During the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict,many Palestinians fled their homes after warnings by Israel or due to air strikes or fighting in the area. An estimated 290,000 people took shelter in UNRWA schools.
Ugochi (Ugo) Daniels is the IOM's Deputy Director General of Operations,taking office on September 1,2021.
Internally displaced persons in Syria are more than half the people fleeing the Syrian Civil War moved only within Syria itself. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 7 million persons in Syria are internally displaced or in need of humanitarian assistance,as of 2017. Most live in houses,often badly damaged by the war. Due to security concerns,poor access to areas of need and unpredictability,humanitarian efforts were directed at emergency aid. The complexity of administrative procedures and limited capacity of NGOs permitted to operate in Syria are also cited as challenges to assistance.
Italy has yet to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state,partly due to a desire to await the outcome of the currently stalled negotiations,and partly because the majority of European Union countries do not recognize it either. Nevertheless,Italy firmly backs the creation of the State of Palestine in accordance with the two-state solution. It also helps to fund UNRWA,which assists Palestinian refugees. Both nations are a part of the Union for the Mediterranean.
Since the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war on 7 October 2023,the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has conducted numerous airstrikes on more than 200 educational facilities,including universities,in the Gaza Strip. The IDF states such airstrikes are the result of the placement of military infrastructure and rocket launching from civilian areas,including schools. By late March 2024,the United Nations recorded more than 200 Israeli attacks on schools in Gaza,with at least 53 schools totally destroyed. By July 2024,all 19 Gaza universities had suffered severe damage with 80% of university buildings destroyed,103 academics killed,and 90,000 students enrolled in higher education no longer able to pursue their studies. In June 2024,UNOCHA stated 76 percent of Gaza's schools required "full reconstruction or major rehabilitation",and in August 2024,UNICEF stated 564,or 85 percent,of all schools in Gaza had been hit by Israeli attacks.
The relationship between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and Israel is a feature of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. For decades,UNRWA has faced Israeli allegations surrounding its neutrality. It is the largest relief organization in the Gaza Strip which is currently undergoing a humanitarian crisis during the Israel–Hamas war. UNRWA was created as a United Nations agency in 1949 to support the relief of Palestinian refugees in the wake of their expulsion and flight during the 1948 Palestine war. After Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six-Day War,it requested that UNRWA continue its operations there,which it would facilitate.
On 11 September 2024,the Israel Defense Forces bombed the UN-run Al-Jawni school in the Nuseirat refugee camp of central Gaza. The school had been sheltering people displaced by the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip,including women and children. Per rescuers,18 people were killed and more than 44 others were wounded. Among the killed were six United Nations workers,including the manager of the UNRWA shelter. This made it the highest death toll for UN staff in any single incident of the Israel–Hamas War and raising the number of UNRWA staff killed since the beginning of the war to 220. The attack was one of a number of attacks on schools during the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the fifth bombing of the Al-Jawni School since October 2023.
