Protesters at UNRWA office in Gaza stopped from receiving drinking water

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) prevented protesters at its head office in Gaza from receiving drinking water, the Association of Engineers – Gaza Governorates said yesterday.

More than 120 Palestinian engineers have staged a protest for the fifth day inside the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza, demanding the organisation give them permanent contracts after they worked on temporary bases for between one and five years.

In a statement, the engineers said that they staged their protest after UNRWA decided to end or not renew the contracts of more than 120 of them.

“We call on UNRWA to start new contracts with us after we succeeded in carrying out several successful projects,” the statement said.

The workers’ spokesperson, Thamer Shomar, said: “The UNRWA does not have the right to end or refuse to renew contracts of the engineers.”

He said that the UNRWA ended the contracts under the pretext of a shortage of support for new projects, noting that many of the engineers were asked to leave ongoing projects. He said that 120 of the 170 engineers working with UNRWA were sent away.

Engineer Ahmed Samra placed full responsibility on the UN organisation. “The UNRWA asked many of the engineers to resign from their previous jobs, promising it would give them permanent contracts.”

“It [UNRWA] prevented drinking water bottles from being brought in for the protesters,” the association said. It published pictures of bottles of water at the main gate of the organisation’s head office in Gaza, saying protesters were unable to them in.

Images are courtesy of Association of Engineers.