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<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely critical to unlock the congestion…at crossing points and to reopen critical lifelines<\/strong> like the Jordan corridor,\u201d said Juliette Touma, Director of Communications at UNOPS, the United Nations Office for Project Services.\u00a0<\/p>\n Briefing journalists, Ms. Touma highlighted that although the 3 October ceasefire agreement had brought some respite to families, \u201cpeople continue to be killed, day in, day out\u201d.<\/p>\n She said that Gaza\u2019s highly vulnerable people simply \u201ccannot wait\u201d for a reconstruction plan to take shape<\/strong> \u2013 one of the stated aims of the US-led Board of Peace. \u201cThey need supplies at the same time, it’s not just the services,\u201d she stressed.<\/p>\n Echoing those concerns, the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, underscored its key and longstanding role in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Gaza. This mission was entrusted to UNRWA by UN Member States at the global body\u2019s General Assembly in December 1949.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are the largest United Nations agency operating in the Gaza Strip,\u201d said Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA Senior Communications Manager. \u201cWe must be able to continue doing our work; that’s crystal clear.\u201d<\/p>\n While it has yet to be made clear exactly how the UN will support Board of Peace launched by President Trump at Davos on Thursday, last November\u2019s Security Council resolution 2803 that welcomed its creation highlighted the importance of working with \u201ccooperating organizations\u201d including the United Nations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are very strongly committed to do whatever we can to ensure the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 2803,\u201d said Alessandra Vellucci, Director, UN Information Service, Geneva. \u201cThere is a role for the UN there about the UN leading on humanitarian aid delivery, which we have been doing for such a long time and we will continue to do the best of our capacities.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Sunday, humanitarian partners providing emergency shelter\u00a0assistance\u00a0have reached over 13,000\u00a0households in Gaza,\u00a0distributing\u00a0hundreds of tents and thousands of\u00a0tarpaulins, aid coordination office, OCHA, said in its latest update.<\/p>\n The UN office noted that \u201ccapacity and funding constraints\u201d have limited support to only around 40 per cent of the existing\u00a0970\u00a0displacement\u00a0sites\u00a0across the Strip.\u202f<\/p>\n Healthcare needs remain enormous across Gaza, too, where providers such as UNRWA try to help around 15,000 patients a day, despite numerous challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had 22 clinics operating across the Gaza Strip before the start of the war, we’re now down to half a dozen,\u201d said Mr. Fowler. \u201cAnd we have mobile health teams that operate, but in incredibly complicated circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n A number of UNRWA facilities are located behind the so-called Yellow Line \u2013 a series of concrete blocks installed by the Israeli authorities which separates Gazans from the Israel Defense Forces \u2013 envisaged in the three-step Gaza peace plan.<\/p>\n \u201cThat makes it incredibly difficult to do our work and so many of our locations have been heavily damaged or indeed completely destroyed,\u201d Mr. Fowler continued. \u201cOn top of that, we remain banned by the Israeli authorities from bringing in any of our own supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n Turning to the destruction of UNRWA\u2019s headquarters in East Jerusalem on Tuesday, Mr. Fowler described how visiting diplomats had been caught up in the dramatic events when Israeli forces \u201cstormed and demolished\u201d buildings in the compound and fired tear gas. \u201cThis is a United Nations compound, so this is an attack on the United Nations,\u201d he told journalists.\u00a0<\/p>\n Highlighting concerns that the UNRWA-supported Kalandia Training Centre could be shut down \u201cwithin days\u201d, Mr. Fowler explained that it principally helped lower-income families to earn the skills they needed to earn a living: \u201cIf the centre were to be forcibly closed – and we do fear that this could happen within days – there is no educational alternative for these students.\u201d<\/p>\n The UN agency remains deeply worried about developments in the occupied West Bank, one year since the Israeli forces launched operation Iron Wall.<\/p>\n \u201cThis led to the mass displacement of people from three camps in the north of the West Bank,\u201d Mr. Fletcher explained, in reference to Jenin,\u00a0Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee settlements.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe camps are progressively being demolished by the Israeli military. So therefore, changing the facts on the ground, changing the topography and the demography of these large communities,\u201d Mr. Fowler insisted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nUNRWA commitment<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Board of Peace<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Gaza distribution obstacles remain<\/strong><\/h2>\n
UNRWA premises \u2018stormed\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Training centre threat<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Demographic shift<\/strong><\/h2>\n