Day: 1 October 2021

At least 12 Palestinians were injured today by the Israeli occupation army, including a child, during clashes in the villages of Beita and Kafr Qaddum in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC).

Israeli occupation soldiers fired live gunfire, rubber-coated rounds and stun grenades at the anti-colonization protesters in Beita, injuring 11 of them. Another 17 cases of suffocation from teargas were reported.

Four protesters also sustained injuries after falling on the ground while being chased by soldiers.

Meantime, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy was injured by Israeli rubber-coated rounds during the weekly anti-colonization protest in the village of Kafr Qaddum, in Qalqilia province.

For near five months, Palestinians from Beita and neighboring villages have been holding almost daily protests against Israel’s construction of an illegal settlement outpost, Evaytar, on Jabal Sabih mount which is adjacent to the village.

Several Palestinian protesters have been killed and dozens wounded by Israeli occupation forces during recurrent clashes over the past five months.

In July, Israeli settlers vacated the illegal outpost under an agreement with the Israeli government that will allow for the outpost to remain intact and under permanent supervision of the Israeli occupation army, despite its unauthorized construction.

Before leaving, the dozens of Zionist families who had settled there erected a 13-meter-high iron Star of David facing the nearby Palestinian village of Beita with the phrase “We will return” inscribed next to it.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced today it will be seeking $800 million to maintain services to the Palestinian refugees at a donor conference scheduled for November in Brussels.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York that the organization needed “predictability” for its operations.

To fund UNRWA’s “three core activities” — education, health and social services — “we are seeking $800 million a year,” Lazzarini was quoted as saying by the Paris-based France 24 network.

“The main objective of the conference is to have a better predictability” and to “promote visibility,” the Swiss diplomat said.

The funding would allow the agency to keep open the 700 or so schools it managed, catering to 550,000 children, as well as health centers and to provide social welfare to Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

In addition to the $800 million, Lazzarini said there was also a need for funds for the humanitarian aid provided by UNRWA, which varies from one year to the next, depending on the crisis, but which the agency estimates will be around half a million dollars in 2022.

Lazzarini said his agency was $100 million short to see out this year, and warned that it might have to shut down some activities in November and December.

“Today we keep struggling, running after cash,” he said. “I never know as a Commissioner-General weeks ahead if I would be able to pay the salaries of 28,000 staff.”

UNRWA provides assistance to more than five million Palestinians registered with it in the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Lebanon.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency