GAZA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Pierre Krahenbuhl warned Wednesday of a dramatic and unprecedented deterioration of humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking to reporters in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Krahenbuhl said that no one in the world could reduce the situation in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Islamic Hamas movement.
He said his agency is observing the serious humanitarian consequences in Gaza in light of the significant increase in unemployment rates and the inability of families to meet the needs to continue normal life.
There are tremendous psychological pressures that people in Gaza are experiencing, the UN official said, warning of the future of the educational process in UNRWA schools due to the Agency's financial deficit.
Gaza has been placed under a tight Israeli blockade since Islamic Hamas movement seized the territory by force after routing forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.
In the recent 10 years, Israel and Hamas movement have been engaged in three major wars that claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis.
The blockade has pushed Gaza's 2 million population deeper into poverty with inflating unprecedented unemployment rates.
Krahenbuhl said that the world must listen to the depth of the suffering and concern of the people there, stressing it is time to move seriously to find a political solution and deal with the consequences of the Israeli blockade sand occupation.
He stressed that the mandate of UNRWA is protected by the United Nations and will never be for sale, calling for a political commitment to protect the rights of Palestinian refugees.
The UNRWA Commissioner-General added that the additional pledges of 100 million U.S. dollars his agency received at the Rome International Conference, which was held on 15 of this month, was a good step, but still not enough.
The United States decided in January to decrease its contribution to UNRWA in 2018 from 125 million U.S. dollars to 65 million dollars.
The U.S. administration has also announced it will not provide the agency with 45 million dollars for aid that it pledged in December last year.
More than five million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip will suffer if the agency is shut down or financial aid is suspended, he added.
