New York, June 07: The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees has urged the international community to provide 103 million dollars to support its emergency activities in the second half of 2003. The UNRWA, the largest development and emergency relief agency in the Middle East, said the funds were needed to provide food aid, shelter, medical care and counselling for children who have been traumatized by violence.
Launching the appeal, the UN body`s Commissioner General Peter Hansen, emphasized that even if the recently re-started peace negotiations prove successful, the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian refugees will remain great for the foreseeable future. "The Palestinian population has suffered so much in the last three years that their distress will not quickly be reversed", he said. "The Palestinian economy has been gravely damaged and poverty rates have tripled; hundreds of families have been made homeless and thousands of people have been killed and injured. If the international community wishes to encourage peace in the region it must continue working to ease the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank", the agency said.

Bureau Report