File photo: UNRWA protests in Gaza
Dozens of Palestinians took part in a demonstration on Tuesday outside the headquarters of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Held on an almost-daily basis, the demonstrations are intended to protest the UNRWA's plan to scale down its operations in Gaza and reduce the number of its employees.
Tuesday’s protest, organized by Gaza’s Joint Committee for Defending the Rights of Palestinian Refugees, saw people holding banners reading, “Refugees' rights are a red line” and “With our unity, we’ll obtain our rights”.
Mahmoud Khalaf, a leading member of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said in a statement: “We warn UNRWA against its policy of sacking employees, reducing their salaries and threatening them with arbitrary dismissal.”
“The policies of the U.S. administration aim to terminate UNRWA’s operations, revealing its bias in favor of Israel,” Khalaf said.
He added: “U.S. President Donald Trump's call to end the refugee issue has paved the way for the death of UNRWA.”
A general strike on Monday paralyzed operations at the Gaza City office of the UN’s cash-strapped Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA).According to a UNRWA official, the strike is intended to protest the agency’s plan to scale down operations -- and dismiss employees -- in the blockaded Gaza Strip.“Monday’s strike has affected the agency’s educational, health and relief services,” Ameer al-Mishal, head of the UNRWA employees’ union, members of which helped organize the strike, told Anadolu Agency.Protest activity will “escalate further” if the UNRWA’s administration fails to meet strikers’ demands, al-Mishal said, noting that some 13,000 Gaza-based agency employees had taken part in Monday’s general strike.In late July, a UNRWA spokesman announced that the agency -- which continues to suffer from chronic funding shortfalls -- would not renew the contracts of more than 100 staff members in Gaza.According to the employees’ union, funding cuts have forced the agency to close its mental health program, which had provided direct services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and had employed about 430 people.UNRWA has also terminated the contracts of dozens of its engineers in recent months, union officials have said.Late last month, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert announced that Washington would “no longer commit funding” to the refugee agency.The U.S. had been UNRWA's largest contributor by far, providing it with $350 million annually -- roughly a quarter of its overall budget.Established in 1949, UNRWA provides critical aid to Palestinian refugees in the blockaded Gaza Strip, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
UNRWA employees in Gaza Strip protest downsizing plans
The Israeli authorities have closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron (Al-Khalil) to Muslim worshipers for two days during the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot, according to a local Palestinian official.This year, Sukkot began on Sunday (Sept. 23) and will end one week later (Sept. 30). “The Israeli authorities told us the mosque would be closed from Tuesday morning to Wednesday night,” mosque director Hafthi Abu Sneneh told Anadolu Agency. Settlers storm J'lem's Al-Aqsa, Palestinians detained“The site was closed to Muslims for the Jewish Sukkot holidays, while being kept open to Jewish settlers who are allowed to perform Talmudic rituals under police protection,” Abu Sneneh said. Revered by both Muslims and Jews, Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque complex is believed to mark the burial sites of the prophets Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. After the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers inside the mosque by Jewish extremist settler Baruch Goldstein, Israeli authorities divided the mosque complex between Muslim and Jewish worshippers. Hebron is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinian Muslims and about 500 Jewish settlers. The latter live in a series of Jewish-only enclaves heavily guarded by Israeli troops.
Israel closes Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslims
In July, a UNRWA spokesman announced that the agency -- which continues to suffer from chronic funding shortfalls -- would not renew the contracts of more than 100 staff members in Gaza.
According to the UNRWA employees’ union, funding cuts have forced the agency to close its mental health program, which had provided direct services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and had employed about 430 people.
UNRWA has also terminated the contracts of dozens of its engineers in recent months, union officials have said.
Late last month, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert announced that Washington would “no longer commit funding” to the refugee agency.
The U.S. had been UNRWA's largest contributor by far, providing it with $350 million annually -- roughly a quarter of its overall budget.
Established in 1949, UNRWA provides critical aid to Palestinian refugees in the blockaded Gaza Strip, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Hundreds of Jewish settlers on Tuesday forced their way into East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to a Palestinian official.“Three hundred settlers stormed the holy compound and performed Talmudic rituals near the Dome of the Rock Mosque,” Firas al-Dibs, a Palestinian official with Jerusalem’s Religious Endowments Authority, told Anadolu Agency.He said settlers were backed by dozens of Israeli policemen, who arrested two authority employees and a Palestinian worshiper.“The settlers stormed the compound through the Al-Magharbah Gate and stayed for five hours before leaving through the Al-Silsila Gate,” he added.According to al-Dibs, extremist Jewish groups had called on followers to converge on the Al-Aqsa to mark the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot.Tension has mounted in the Palestinian territories -- including occupied East Jerusalem, where the Al-Aqsa is located -- since U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.For Muslims, the Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount", claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.Palestinian martyred by Israeli soldiers in N. GazaArab League hails Spain’s plan to recognize Palestine
Settlers storm J'lem's Al-Aqsa, Palestinians detained
At least one Palestinian protester was martyred and 10 others wounded on Monday evening by Israeli soldiers, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.In a statement, the ministry said Fayez Abu al-Sadiq, 21, was martyred by Israeli gunfire in the northern Gaza Strip.Hundreds of Palestinians converged along Gaza’s northern border [buffer zone between Gaza and Israel] and set tires on fire as part of the ongoing rallies known as the Great March of Return.The injured persons included a cameraman, who was covering rally for Anadolu Agency.Video: Palestinian martyred by Israeli soldiers in N. GazaMontaser al-Sawaf, the cameraman, said that an Israeli gas bomb hit him in the left leg when he was trying to capture scenes of Israeli army assault on hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators."At the same time when I was hit, my camera was also hit by an Israeli bullet,” he told Anadolu Agency.Sawaf pointed out that the ambulance crew treated him on the ground and described his injury as a "minor" one.Since the latest round of the Palestinian rallies began in late March, scores of Palestinians have been martyred -- and thousands injured -- by Israeli troops deployed along the other side of the buffer zone.Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its more than 2 million inhabitants of many basic commodities.
Palestinian martyred by Israeli soldiers in N. Gaza