Word: unrwa
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Says Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA): "Because the Israelis are not allowing in any reconstruction material, that $4.5 billion is just a paper figure." With more than 80% of Gazans now surviving on humanitarian handouts from UNRWA, Gunness adds, "Palestinians are becoming more desperate and more extreme." (See pictures of Israeli soldiers sweeping into Gaza...
...shops destroyed during Israel's offensive. But so far, according to GISHA, an Israeli legal-rights group, the Israelis have allowed only 19 trucks carrying construction material into Gaza since the war ended last January. "You could say that Israel has bombed Gaza back into the mud age," says UNRWA's Gunness, "because that's what they're building their houses...
...latest Palestinian elections. But that hasn't happened yet, nor is it likely to: Hamas smuggles arms, money and supplies into Gaza through tunnels from Egypt, and increasingly, joining the militants has become the only source of a monthly wage for young males. In the meantime, says John Ging, UNRWA's chief officer in Gaza, the Israeli siege is "facilitating the destruction of a civilized society." Before the siege, Palestinians in Gaza had prided themselves on the excellence of their schools and industriousness of their workers, many of whom, in more peaceful times, held jobs across the fence in Israel...
...like the analogy of a prison," says John Ging, chief of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, dispelling a description that many Palestinians themselves use. There is a tendency, he says, to view prisoners as deserving of their suffering for having committed some crime. "Nothing could be further from the truth... They're like you, if one morning, you woke and someone had transported you to a prison. What do you do? How do you cope with this? You're now imprisoned, in a prison, where you shouldn...
...cousin, a cameraman, had arrived in an armed press vehicle after hearing the warnings issued by the Israeli military that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters, across the street from our apartment-building compound, and all the surrounding buildings would be bombed within the coming minutes. He arrived at our door just as the news began to spread. The entire building was quickly evacuated. We were, in fact, among the last to leave. We were asked to wait in the entrance for a few minutes, following which we ran one at a time to the vehicle parked...