Tag: PALESTINIANS

Categories
-Top News Arab News World News

Over 150,000 Palestinians have nowhere to go, says UNRWA

India has also contributed close to $30 million over the last five years, for the welfare of Palestine people, according to MEA…reports Asian Lite News

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Thursday said that the over 150,000 Palestinians have nowhere to go amidst the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel, media reports said.

“People — young children, women carrying babies, people with disabilities & the elderly– have nowhere to go. They are forced to move again,” the UN aid agency said.

It said that the evacuation order by Israeli authorities of middle Gaza has caused the ongoing forced displacement.

“Only remaining hope is a humanitarian ceasefire,” the UNRWA said.

Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, has said that a staggering 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza — more than 80 per cent of the population — have been internally displaced.

“Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment across Gaza has damaged over 250,000 housing units, with an additional 50,000 units completely destroyed. Consequently, more than 1 million people in Gaza lack a safe and secure home to return to,” Egeland said.

India hands over $2.5 mn aid

India released the second tranche of USD 2.5 million to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Thursday.

With this, India also fulfilled its annual contribution of $5 million for 2023-24, the Indian Embassy in Palestine said in a statement.

The contribution was handed over by Chargee d’Affaires Mrs. Elizabeth Rodrigues. This is aimed to support the Agency’s core programmes and services, including education, healthcare, relief and social services provided to Palestinian refugees.

“The Government of India, today, released the second tranche’ a USD 2.5 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), fulfilling its annual contribution of USD 5 million for the year 2023-24, to support the Agency’s core programmes and services, including education, healthcare, relief and social services provided to Palestinian refugees,” the Indian Embassy statement read.

Notably, India has enhanced its annual contribution to the agency from USD 1.25 million in 2018 to $5 million.

India has also contributed close to $30 million over the last five years, for the welfare of Palestine people, according to MEA.

ALSO READ-Ongoing Conflict Leaves 150,000 Palestinians with No Shelter

Categories
-Top News Arab News Asia News

Pakistan NGOs Offer Aid to Palestinians

This comes as aid organisations have said time is “running out to save millions of people” in the Gaza Strip. Yet, no aid is being allowed inside the area….reports Asian Lite News

Non-governmental organisations in Pakistan are ready to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, but they cite blockade and logistical issues as key challenges, Dawn reported.

This comes as aid organisations have said time is “running out to save millions of people” in the Gaza Strip. Yet, no aid is being allowed inside the area.

Edhi Foundation’s Faisal Edhi told Dawn: “All routes to Gaza are closed. It’s all sealed.” He added that his heart bleeds for the Palestinians.

While all crossings into Gaza from Israel are closed, the only entry point is the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. However, that, too, has been left inoperable due to Israeli air strikes.

As per Edhi, aid agencies in Pakistan could enter from the Egyptian side, but the North African country was “refusing visas to Pakistanis.

He recalled that three years ago, when Israel was bombing Gaza, his organisations tried to reach Gaza via Rafah, “but then Egypt turned down our visa applications”.

He presumed Egypt was “afraid” granting visas to humanitarian bodies would not sit well with the US, as per Dawn.

Amjad Chamdia of Saylani Welfare Trust also said going to Gaza through any country was not possible.

“Even people from neighbouring countries cannot reach there as borders are sealed,” he said.

Chamdia said the people of Gaza have no food, water, electricity or cooking gas. “Everything has been cut off, and they are being tortured and killed.”

Meanwhile, The Israel Defence Force today released what they claimed was technical evidence to prove that the explosion at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was due to a rocket misfired by the Islamic Jihad terror group.

Spokesperson of Israel Defence Forces (IDF), RAdm. Daniel Hagari released an audio that claimed to be a conversation between two terrorists who admitted that the rocket fired on the Hospital belonged to their group.

In a press conference, Israel military spokesperson asserted that the preliminary investigation suggested that the rocket fired at the Hospital was from the barrage of rockets fired towards Israel which was launched nearer to the Hospital.

“Trajectory analysis from the Barrage of Rockets confirms that the rockets were fired close proximity to the hospital. In addition, there are two independent videos which show the failure of the rocket launch and the continuation of rocket flight towards the ground within the Gaza stream falling in the hospital compound,” he said.

An airstrike on a hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday claimed the lives of hundreds of people, as per Reuters.

Israel’s Embassy in India said that an Al Jazeera broadcast captured the moment Islamic Jihad launched a rocket that misfired and hit a hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds.

“Two things to note here: 1. Iron Dome cannot stop rockets over Gaza because of their trajectory. 2. You can clearly see in the video that the rocket misfires, explodes over Gaza, splits into two and the explosive part (warhead) falls on the hospital,” the embassy wrote on ‘X’. (ANI)

ALSO READ: 5,000 Afghan Migrants Return from Pakistan

Categories
-Top News Arab News USA

Palestinians not keen on Biden ME visit

Biden’s visit won’t make breakthrough in resolving Palestinian-Israeli conflict … writes Saud Abu Ramadan, Emad Drimly

The upcoming visit of U.S. President Joe Biden to Israel and the Palestinian territories won’t make any “serious breakthrough” in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Palestinian analysts said.

The Biden administration is not serious about finding political solutions to the Palestinian cause and tries to focus on improving the economic conditions of the Palestinians while maintaining Israel’s grip over Palestinian security, they said.

Ahmad Rafiq Awwad, a political science professor at the Al-Quds University, said the Palestinians do not expect a breakthrough or a significant shift in the U.S. policy toward the Palestinian cause or even the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

“All we heard from Washington is that it supports the two-state solution,” he said. “It’s just statements, as they did not specify when, how, where, and what are the mechanisms to embody it on the ground.”

Awwad called on the United States to take concrete steps before Biden’s visit, such as removing the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from the terrorism list, reopening the PLO office in Washington and the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem, and resuming aid to the Palestinian Authority.

“These are promises made by the U.S. government but have not been implemented so far,” he told Xinhua.

Awwad predicted that Biden might announce that he would provide the Palestinians with financial incentives and take symbolic steps that do not upset the Israelis, such as the expansion of Palestinian geographical jurisdiction in some areas of the West Bank, a specific settlement freeze, and symbolic supervision of border crossing points.

“The U.S. government suffers from weakness, confusion, hypocrisy,” he noted, adding Biden’s visit was mainly intended to boost his party’s electoral advantage by focusing on Israel’s security.

Nearly 29 years after signing a peace agreement with Israelis to put an end to decades of hostilities between the two sides, the Palestinians have become more and more frustrated with the U.S. policy. Because of significant disagreements over security, Israeli settlement expansion, and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, sponsored by Washington, have stalled since March 2014.

Biden’s visit to the Palestinian territories “is secondary and on the sidelines of the real goals of his tour,” said Abdulmajid Sweilem, a political analyst from the West Bank city of Ramallah.

He said the visit “is a political courtesy,” during which Biden is expected to “repeat Washington’s old slogans of adhering to the two-state solution and protecting the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and security, among other cliches.”

“Ultimately, these cliches mean improving the lives of the Palestinians under the framework of Israeli domination and limited Palestinian self-rule,” said Sweilem.

In a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on June 30, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was looking forward to creating a political horizon for achieving a just and comprehensive peace based on the international resolutions and the two-state solution.

Abbas hoped Biden’s visit would help boost the two-state solution, and stop Israel’s settlement expansion and expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem. But Palestinian analysts deeply doubted the U.S. leader will do so.

Talal Okal, a Gaza-based political analyst, believed Biden is aware that the time “is not yet ripe for launching a peace process in the region” with regard to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

“Because of a number of factors, including the failure of previous U.S. governments in this test, the Palestinian-Israeli issue does not constitute any priority in U.S. foreign policy,” Okal told Xinhua.

Biden prioritizes other concerns over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict because they are more urgent to him on both domestic and international levels, he noted.

ALSO READ-Biden may resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia