UN plea to aid Palestinians

A United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees has made an urgent appeal for nearly forty million dollars to help Palestinians affected by the continuing violence.

A senior official of the UN agency which cares for Palestinian refugees, Maher Nasser, said funds were needed to help treat the injured and meet humanitarian needs.

Speaking in the Jordanian capital Amman, he said that under a three-month plan, twenty million dollars would be spent in the Gaza Strip and slightly less in the West Bank.

The agency said the economic situation within refugee camps and nearby villages was worsening and that the unemployment rate among refugees in the Palestinian territories had risen to around forty per cent from eleven per cent before the latest unrest. The UN World Food Programme said earlier this month that it would begin an emergency operation to feed about three-hundred thousand Palestinians.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service