ROME, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian Prime Minister on Thursday appealed to the international community to increase its financial support to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), local media reported.
Rami Hamdallah made his remarks at the side of an extraordinary donor conference held at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in the Italian capital.
New pledges for about 100 million U.S. dollars were made during the conference, according to the United Nations. "The results of the conference are encouraging, but more efforts are needed," Hamdallah was quoted by Agenzia Nova news agency as saying.
The Palestinian leader warned about the humanitarian risk posed by the funding gap that has affected UNRWA since after the U.S. decided to reduce its aid earlier this year.
UNRWA said it would be short of an estimated 446 million U.S. dollars overall in 2018, which was considered as the "worst financial crisis" since its inception.
"We do hope all countries will be able to provide their support in order to secure the activities of UNRWA in Palestine (occupied territories), Syria, Lebanon, and to help stability in the region," Hamdallah said.
Rome's donor conference was co-chaired by Jordan, Egypt and Sweden, and attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Foreign Policy High Representative for the European Union (EU) Federica Mogherini. Ministers and representatives from 90 countries were invited to join the meeting.
Founded in 1949, UNRWA currently helps 5.3 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, providing emergency aid, education, health care and social service, micro-finance and infrastructure support.
It manages 700 schools attended by some 525,000 children in Gaza, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, according to UN data.
Despite the new financial pledges made on Thursday, UNRWA would not be able to run all of its work this year, if further aid was not provided. This would not only affect the Palestinian population, but also pose a threat to the whole Middle East, according to the UN chief.
"It is clear that countries like Jordan, Lebanon, or Syria... absolutely need the work of UNRWA to support their own gigantic efforts of solidarity with the refugee community," Guterres warned.
"If UNRWA did not exist, if its services were not provided, the security of the region would be severely undermined," he added.
