The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on Tuesday denied a false allegation made against it by former head of the Israeli army over an alleged incident which occurred during the 2014 summer Israeli aggression on Gaza. According to WAFA Palestinian News & Info Agency, the organization stressed that the allegation made by former head of the army – that a weapon was fired from an UNRWA school in Gaza and claimed the life of an Israeli child in a kibbutz in southern Israel – was later proven wrong. On the record UNRWA quote via Chris Gunness: "The head of the Israeli army during the summer war in Gaza has reportedly made the allegation that a weapon fired from an UNRWA school in Gaza killed an Israeli child in a kibbutz in southern Israel. "This allegation was made by the Israeli Army in August 2014. However, it is false. Less than 2 hours after it was first made by the Israeli army, the Israeli army itself officially retracted the claim and issued a correcti...

The United Nations in Gaza is struggling to withstand a flood of almost a quarter of a million refugees into shelters that have repeatedly come under Israeli fire. Out of cash, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main U.N. body in the impoverished enclave of 1.8 million Palestinians, says it can barely handle the humanitarian crisis unleashed by more than three weeks of fighting between militants and Israel. Asked to explain the scale of the civilian suffering to an Arab news station, an UNRWA spokesman simply burst into tears. "There are times when tears speak more eloquently than words. Mine pale into insignificance compared with Gaza's," Chris Gunness said. "UNRWA is overwhelmed in Gaza. We have reached breaking point; our staff are being killed, our shelters overflowing. Where will it end ... UNRWA now has 225,178 displaced in 86 shelters. But Gaza is being destroyed. So when the war is over, where will these people go?" Gunness said...

GAZA CITY - Ten men attacked and vandalised overnight a United Nations facility being used to stage summer camps for children in the Gaza Strip, a UN spokesman said on Thursday. Chris Gunness, spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which supports Palestinian refugees, said the facility in northwest Gaza was attacked around midnight on Wednesday. "The attackers damaged a large billboard, burnt a UN flag and torched part of the stage. None of the UN security personnel at the venue were harmed," Gunness said. The attack came the day before children attending UNRWA summer camps will attempt to set a world record for the largest number of children flying kites at the site. Gunness said the record attempt would go ahead despite the attack, and called on local authorities to investigate the vandalism. "We condemn this attack, which is an attack on the children of Gaza as much as on the United Nations," he said. "We call on the authorities in Gaza to inv...

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness responds to Gaza protests about cuts in assistance to refugees: (from Maan ) The protesters who closed down UNRWA’s Gaza office say they were doing this to fight for the rights of the refugees whose assistance is being slashed. What's your response to this? Gunness: This protest action was entirely counter-productive. By keeping hundreds of UNRWA staff out of their offices, the organizers were harming the very refugees on whose behalf they claim to be protesting. The Gaza office is the "command and control" center from which we run our programs across the entire Gaza Strip. We need access to our computers to service projects, to manage our education, health, relief and social service programs. It's where the personnel department is based for, for example, paying staff salaries, it's where our IT department is, it's where the radio room is for security and without these things our full programs become unsustainable very quickly. Th...

GAZA ( Ma'an ) -- More than three thousand students from the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees are expected to break the first of four Guinness world records Thursday as part of a summer games program organized by UNRWA. The games, a six week recreational program now in its fifth year, are organized by the UN agency at the behest of the Gazan population and over a quarter of a million children participate, a statement by UNRWA said. The world records being attempted include the largest amount of people flying large parachutes from the ground, which was set last year at 1,547. The event will be held at the Khan Younis stadium. “We intend to double the previous record”, said UNRWA spokesman, Chris Gunness. “If kids in Gaza are given half the chance, free from the constraints of this counter-productive blockade, they would show their full potential and be number one in the world. These records will put the spotlight on the world’s only community of hundreds of thousands of fenc...

From the Khaleej Times JERUSALEM — The unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip stood at 45.2 percent in late 2010, one of the highest in the world according to a report released on Tuesday by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. The figure, for the second half of 2010, was a slight improvement on the 45.7 percent rate during the same period in 2009, but it was an increase from the first half of 2010, when a temporary building boom boosted employment. UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said the figures showed the ongoing crisis in Gaza and the continuing effects of Israel’s blockade on the coastal territory. “These are disturbing trends,” UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said, referring to the both the unemployment figures and statistics showing that real wages were continuing to decline. He said it was “hard to understand the logic” of Israel’s blockade, saying it “deliberately impoverishes so many and condemns hrdreds of thousands of potentially productive people to a life of ...

(pic: Maan images) The United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, has released its latest monthly figures relating to the Israeli practice of demolitions and forced evictions in the West Bank, which show a record number of children displaced. “Demolitions saw 67 children displaced in May, the highest monthly figure so far this year,” said UNRWA spokesman, Chris Gunness, “64 in Area C and 3 in East Jerusalem.” Under the Israeli zoning policy in the occupied Palestinian territory, Palestinians are allowed to build in just 13 per cent of occupied East Jerusalem and 1 per cent of Area C in the West Bank, which are already heavily built up. “Palestinians are refused permits and are forced to build illegally. They then suffer the humiliation either of having the Israeli authorities destroy their homes, or are forced to destroy their homes themselves and foot the bill,” said Gunness. “Children often watch with their parents as their homes are demolished. A house is a place of safety...

GAZA CITY ( Ma’an ) -- The unemployment rate in Gaza has continued to climb in 2011, reaching 45.4%, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told reporters in Gaza City on Wednesday. At a news conference for the UN Relief and Works Agency, Gunness warned that the increasing unemployment was a sign of a hugely fragile Gaza economy, which he described as on the "brink of collapse." Israel's continued siege on the coastal enclave, Gunness warned, would push the economy over the edge. Such high unemployment, the official said, meant "people have less money in their pockets and more despair," adding a caution, that despair in Gaza would give no boost to a peace process when it got back on track. more

The real question is why isn't the UN working with the government - Hamas in this case - to deliver the aid. Palestinians rely on UN relief but it doesn't mean they have to give up their sovereign right to run their own affairs. The western media reports seem to imply that Hamas is an entitiy beyond the civilian population when in fact they are of course one and the same, like all genuine resistance movements. A UN spokesman said policemen raided a UN warehouse on Tuesday after officials refused to hand over the aid to a Hamas-controlled ministry. From the BBC The UN said it was the first time its aid had been confiscated by Hamas. It condemned the action and demanded the goods be immediately returned. Hamas denied its men had taken any aid. UN spokesman Christopher Gunness said Hamas police took 3,500 blankets and over 400 food parcels. The Hamas Social Affairs Minister in Gaza, Ahmed al-Kurd, denied that members of the Islamist movement had removed aid from a UN building. How...

According to the UN between a third and two thirds of agricultural land has been destroyed by the Israelis. There is a desperate need for industrial scale equipment to tackle the devastation before reconstruction can even begin. The price of all foodstuffs has rocketed but most people don't have the money even for 'cheap' food. Price of meat has tripled. Why aren't UK and other western countries sending equipment to help? Because they don't care. From the Independent Gaza counts the cost – and assigns blame Two weeks after an uneasy ceasefire ended Israel's 22-day offensive, Gaza is still struggling to come to terms with the cost of more than 1,300 Palestinian lives, more than 5,000 injuries and the total or partial destruction of some 20,000 homes. Last night Chris Gunness, chief spokesman for the UN...