Palestinians seek donation to attend humanitarian needs

The Palestinian National Authority and the UN called Monday on the international community to donate 547 million U.S. dollars to meet the humanitarian needs in the Palestinian territories next year.

The call was made at a joint press conference in the West Bank city of Bethlehem that was held by Palestinian Minister of Social Development Ibrahim Al-Shaer and UN humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories Robert Piper.

They launched the call under the title "Humanitarian Response for 2017" to save the lives of 1.6 million Palestinians in the Palestinian territories.

Al-Shaer said the call comes to push the international community "to exert utmost efforts to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories."

He added that the Israeli occupation "has put many Palestinians under severe conditions and is hindering them from achieving economic welfare and social cohesion while living under occupation without sovereignty."

For his part, the UN official said that the situation in Bethlehem "reflects the challenges faced by many communities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including land division, movement restrictions, weak access to services and pressures due to continued settlement expansion projects without deterrence."

Piper warned that the nearly 2 million populations of the Gaza Strip "are facing their 10th year under (Israeli) blockade that makes normal life impossible."

"This call comes to aid the most vulnerable segments of the society, and the most harmed among Palestinian families throughout the Palestinian territories," said Piper.

The plan includes implementing 243 projects through 95 non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

According to humanitarian organizations estimates, the number of Palestinians suffering from medium to severe food insecurity are about 1.6 million.

Some 70 percent of the required funding will go to the Gaza Strip, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007, after Islamic Hamas movement violently seized control of the coastal enclave.

Piper said that the international support is "necessary to continue to provide aid to threatened Palestinians."

However, he underscored the UN calls and efforts are meant to "buy time only, since the real humanitarian response must come hand in hand with the courageous political work to end the world's longest protection crisis." Endit