One million face hunger in Gaza after US cut to Palestine aid

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

One million face hunger in Gaza after US cut to Palestine aid

UN relief agency warns of crisis next month unless donor countries provide $60m

Jennifer Rankin in Brussels
Wed 15 May 2019 12.49 BST Last modified on Wed 15 May 2019 13.29 BST

More than a million people in Gaza risk going hungry next month unless international donors fill a $60m (£46m) funding black hole largely created by cuts to Palestinian refugee aid by the Trump administration, a UN agency has said.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which provides food for more than 1 million people in the Gaza strip, is calling on the EU, Gulf states and large emerging economies such as Russia and China to make “firm commitments” of $60m by the middle of June to prevent hunger.

“We are in a critical situation in terms of our food delivery work,” said Matthias Schmale, the director of the UNRWA’s operations in Gaza. “We have over a million people receiving quarterly food handouts and many of these people would not really survive without that every quarter.”

Speaking in Brussels before meeting European officials, Schmale said “the most immediate reason” for the funding gap was the loss of US support.

The US announced in 2018 it was cutting all funding to the UNRWA, an abrupt loss from the agency’s hitherto largest donor, which provided $360m in 2017.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/15/1-million-face-hunger-in-gaza-after-us-cut-to-palestine-aid

[hack89]

1. Looks like a good time for Hamas to stop building tunnels and buying weapons. nt

[emmaverybo]

2. The apartheid state and the international community leave occupied Palestinians to

charity and Hamas to survive. This is unconscionable and cruel.

[hack89]

3. Crushing Hamas certainly is a solution

But a very messy one.

[emmaverybo]

4. Seems you are not concerned about the issue at hand: Palestinian's starving.

[hack89]

5. If Hamas didn't divert foreign aid towards military preparations

They wouldn’t be starving.

[EX500rider]

6. Maybe they shouldn't waste so much money paying for murders?

"Fatah is currently paying about $200 million a year to the families of over 26,000 “martyrs” (dead terrorists) as well as smaller payments to 6,000 badly injured while trying to kill Israelis. Monthly payments to jailed Palestinians vary according to how long they have been in jail, how many dependents they have and so on. There are also bonuses for how many Israelis the prisoner killed or injured. Some of these convicts get over $50,000 a year. Fatah currently spends nearly $200 million a year to reward over 6,000 jailed terrorists. These rewards were recently increased. Fatah considers the payment program a success even though hundreds of Palestinians have died in the Fatah-promoted violence. These attacks also left a few Israelis dead and for Fatah that is political gold as far as Arab language media is concerned. With this approach, Fatah and Hamas together currently spend over $400 million a year to make murder economically attractive to many young Palestinians and their families. Most of it comes from Fatah although Hamas is trying to make more payments to Palestinians in the West Bank who support Hamas and attack Israelis in the name of Hamas."

Seems like $400 million a year would buy a lot of food if they cared.

https://strategypage.com/qnd/israel/articles/20190716.aspx