Gaza Strip: refugees protest against UNRWA decision to downsize food coupons

People stage a protest against cuts of aid by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) outside the UNRWA, in Gaza City, Gaza on 21 February 2021. [Mustafa Hassona – Anadolu Agency]

Dozens of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip staged a protest on Sunday against the recent decision by UNRWA to downsize food coupons, Anadolu has reported.

Organised by a popular committee affiliated with the PLO, the protest was held outside UNRWA’s food distribution centre at Al-Shati (Beach) Refugee Camp. It was attended by representatives of the national factions, associations and community institutions in the refugee camps.

The protesters expressed their rejection of UNRWA’s decision to impose cuts on its services. They accused the agency of taking the first practical steps towards cutting its essential services for the refugees.

The popular committees demanded that UNRWA should cancel the new single coupon system and reintroduce the two coupon system, to redress the balance for Palestinian refugees classified as being under the extreme poverty line. An estimated 770,000 refugees are already at that level.

READ: UAE sharply reduces its support for UNRWA

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.