Development

The UN refugee agency has urged governments in the Iraq region to find solutions for hundreds of refugees facing harsh winter conditions near the border between Iraq and Jordan. UNHCR estimates that 1,800 people are living in refugee camps in eastern Jordan. UNHCR estimates that 1,800 people are living in refugee camps in eastern Jordan. More than half of them have been stuck in the no man’s land between Iraq and Jordan since April, unwilling to return to Iraq yet unable to enter Jordan.

Concluding its work for the current session, the Fourth Committee took action this morning on ten draft resolutions — approving five texts relating to the work of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and five on Israeli practices in territories occupied since 1967. The Committee’s action today follows its in-depth consideration of the report of UNRWA’s Commissioner-General on the Agency’s operations.

Christian Aid is giving evidence today to a Parliamentary inquiry into the humanitarian crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Middle East expert William Bell, an advocacy officer at Christian Aid, is due to face MPs on the International Development Committee who are investigating the effectiveness of UK government assistance to the Occupied Territories. Mr Bell will be questioned on a 14-page Christian Aid submission which has already been handed to the committee.

Though conditions for Palestinians worsen daily, the latest appeal for emergency funds for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has raised barely 45 per cent of the refugees’ needs, forcing programme cutbacks, the Agency’s said today.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today approved a draft resolution on the situation of Palestinian children. The draft resolution was approved in a vote of 86 in favour to 4 against, with 58 abstentions. The text would have the General Assembly stress the urgent need for Palestinian children to live a normal life free from foreign occupation, destruction and fear in their own State, and demand that Israel respect relevant provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and relevant provisions of the Geneva Convention.

Although 60 per cent of the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza fall below the poverty line, aid programmes have had to be cut back drastically because of the low response to appeals for donations, the chief of the main United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees said today.

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) met this morning to consider the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Today the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) announced that, on the recommendation of staff in Gaza, it is contributing $20,000 for humanitarian assistance to hundreds of Palestinian families left homeless by the recent actions of the Israeli Army in Gaza. AFSC will also accept donations for additional relief.

Christaine Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said that she had been in the occupied Palestinian territories last week. The situation in that region continued to deteriorate. A WFP study showed that more than 50 per cent of the inhabitants of the occupied territories lived below the poverty line.

On 9 October 2003, at approximately 10:30pm, the Israeli Army invaded Tal As-sulttan and the Rafah border area with Egypt. Israeli army tanks and bulldozers supported by fighter helicopters entered from Zu’rob Circle through Al-Qasas region in Yabna destroying and damaging homes, cars, streets and just about anything that got in the way before redeploying to the outer perimeters of Rafah at 11:00pm on 11 October 2003.