JERUSALEM (IRIN) - The European Commission (EC) on 16 June announced a 24 million euro donation to humanitarian programs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. About half of the money would go to the West Bank and half to the Gaza Strip, a senior EC official said, noting that even though only about a third of the population lives in the coastal enclave, the humanitarian situation there was more severe. Read more about Palestinians increasingly donor-dependent 

JERUSALEM (IRIN) - Lower incomes and the increasing cost of food have contributed to higher food insecurity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, without a change in the political situation the only solution remains emergency humanitarian aid, a new UN report has said. Israel has said restrictions on movement and the wall are needed for security purposes and efforts are being made to make life easier for Palestinians. Read more about Politics mostly responsible for Palestinian food insecurity - UN 

GAZA CITY (IPS) - The girl, about 16, is wandering about Jabaliya refugee camp, picking up anything she thinks can burn. She cannot find enough bits of wood, so she gathers plastic bags, old notebooks and even a pair of broken plastic sandals. “I want to heat some water,” she said. “I want a bath.” Read more about Anything for a bath, anything for fuel 

CAIRO (IPS) - In the last two months, popular and parliamentary opposition to the sale of Egyptian natural gas to Israel has mounted. As a result, in a rare nod to public opinion, the government recently announced it was “revising” the terms of the sale agreement. “The government was finally embarrassed into partially addressing our concerns,” Mohammed Anwar al-Sadat, former MP and spokesman for the recently founded Popular Campaign against Gas Exports told IPS. Read more about Egypt bends on Israel gas deal 

It started out as a normal Saturday morning. We were hanging out in Ibdaa Cultural Center in Deheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem. We were all sitting in the cafe at Ibdaa, which is on the fourth floor and has windows around three sides of the building. We were drinking coffee, chatting, watching television and all of a sudden there was a loud sound like a grenade or a bomb. Marcy Newman writes from Deheisheh. Read more about Israeli forces terrorize Deheisheh refugee camp 

In 2000 the UN General Assembly declared 20 June “World Refugee Day,” a day during which the world can focus on the experience and plight of refugees. It is a day that not only recognizes Palestinian refugees but also other unfortunate people whose lives have been disrupted by war and injustice. Najwa Sheikh in Gaza comments on the particular experience of being a Palestinian refugee. Read more about A life trapped 

One of the most repeated quotes among Palestinian refugees is: “The old will die and the young will forget,” words reputedly spoken by Israel’s founding prime minister David Ben-Gurion. However, the young have not forgotten. Everywhere I have traveled in the Arab world Palestinian children tell me the names of their original villages that they still hope to see someday. Even the youngest of children will say things like, “If I don’t return to my village, then my children or their children will.” Hanna Mermelstein writes. Read more about The urgency of 1948 

Marzouq Mo’amar’s smile has returned to his face after he had almost lost hope because of thyroid cancer that had spread to his neck. Just a few weeks ago Palestinian doctors at the Gaza European Hospital in southern Gaza, were able to perform a life-saving surgery for the 62-year-old from Rafah. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari writes from Gaza. Read more about Surgery under siege 

GAZA CITY, 16 June (IPS) - When the broiling sun sinks behind the rolling Mediterranean sea in Gaza, hundreds of fishing boats turn on their motors and assemble ragged nets to round up the evening catch. Flickering blue lights scatter across the shallow seas as the boats gather offshore in close quarters. Mackerel, sardine and grey mullet are caught in nets and dumped into plastic crates to be sold in the street markets. Read more about Net tightens around Gaza fishermen  

GAZA CITY, 15 June (IPS) - Mahmoud Abu Teior, 13, knows it’s Abdullah’s kite up in the skies, though he has never seen Abdullah. But that kite rises into the skies from across the Egyptian side of the border across from Gaza. And, Mahmoud knows Abdullah’s voice because they speak sometimes. They have never met, and likely never will, but they are connected through their kites. Read more about Kites rise above the divisions in Gaza