UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
"JERUSALEM, 20 June 2007 (IRIN) - Some 4.4 million Palestinians remain refugees nearly 60 years after the start of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
As the world marks World Refugee Day on 20 June, about one third of these refugees still live inside camps, while an even larger proportion continue to receive aid and relief services, primarily from UNRWA, the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
Observers say the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories has worsened over the past year due to the violence, intense infighting in the Gaza Strip and the international economic boycott on the Palestinian Authority, which lasted over one year and was only lifted earlier this week.
Darrin Waller, chief executive officer of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP-UK), a London-based humanitarian organisation, said that while all Palestinians had been affected by the turmoil in Gaza, including Israeli military incursions, refugees suffered most. "There is a particular impact on the refugees, as they are the most vulnerable within the community," Waller said.....
Lebanon hosts over 400,000 refugees and the fighting in Nahr al-Bared camp has had an impact on many Palestinians. Some 30,000 have fled the camp in the past month.....Palestinians in Lebanon face a particularly difficult situation, as local law places extreme limitations on their employment opportunities, basically preventing most refugees from working in the camps, aid workers said.....
In Syria, where some 460,000 Palestinian refugees reside, the conditions are better, many Palestinians said......
Jordan hosts about 1.8 million Palestinian refugees including some 130,000 people who fled from Gaza in 1967. These refugees, as opposed to most Palestinians in Jordan, are not citizens, and therefore face restrictions on access to higher education and jobs......
There are about 50,000 Palestinian refugees in Egypt who are not registered with UNRWA. They cannot attend public schools and are not allowed to work.....
Similarly, Palestinians in Iraq are facing an extreme crisis. Over 10,000 have fled Iraq since the US-led invasion and over 1,000 remain stranded at the Syrian-Iraqi border, living in camps where the "humanitarian conditions are horrific", said Waller of MAP-UK......
Double displacement Some 800,000 Palestinians fled the 1948 hostilities to refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and nearly 200,000 of them were forced to flee again in the June 1967 war. UNRWA will mark World Refugee Day by focusing on the plight of those who were twice displaced......"
Bandar Bush was bribed $2 billion by BAE and owns a mansion in Colorado worth $135 million.....
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