How UNRWA funding crisis affects its most vulnerable fields of operation beyond Gaza

Women look on as they stand outside a home along an alley at the Shatila camp for Palestinian refugees in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on April 19, 2023. (AFP)
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Updated 06 February 2024
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How UNRWA funding crisis affects its most vulnerable fields of operation beyond Gaza

  • Defunding major employer of Palestinians in Syria and Lebanon will deprive thousands of families of breadwinners
  • Stoppage of operations will come as a major shock to already ailing Syrian and Lebanese economies

LONDON: With the primary lifeline for millions of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East likely to be severed by the end of February, many families reliant on the UN Relief and Works Agency fear they could fall deeper into poverty — or worse.

Since fleeing the Yarmouk camp in Damascus and moving to Lebanon in 2015, Ayham, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, and his family of three have been surviving on the modest allowance provided by UNRWA.

“We are barely making ends meet even though I do some laboring whenever I find it,” Ayham, 43, told Arab News. “How are we going to survive if we lose UNRWA’s monthly stipend and how will my daughter receive any education?”

Ayham’s family were among the 31,400 Palestinian refugees who fled to Lebanon from neighboring Syria after protests against the government of President Bashar Assad in 2011 escalated into a full-blown civil war.




Shatha, the daughter of 48-year-old Palestinian refugee Issa Al-Loubani, looks out the window of their apartment in the Palestinian Yarmuk camp, on the southern outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus, on November 25, 2020. (AFP/File)

UNRWA has been providing Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan with a monthly cash grant of $100 per family, and an additional $27 for each family member.

For those who have been unable to secure a steady income, the stipend has been all that has stood in the way of destitution. However, on Jan. 26, the US suspended its funding for UNRWA in response to troubling allegations. Several other major donors quickly followed suit.

Consequently, the UN agency, founded in 1949 in the wake of the mass exodus of Palestinians during the Nakba, will likely have to halt operations, including in the embattled Gaza Strip, by the end of the month if funding is not restored.

The funding suspensions came after Israeli intelligence alleged that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, and that 10 percent of the agency’s 12,000 employees in Gaza had doubled as Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives.

On Oct. 7, Hamas carried out a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 others captive.

In retaliation, Israel launched a bombing campaign in Gaza, killing more than 27,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, wounding 66,000 others, and forcibly displacing 85 percent of the enclave’s 2.2 million population.




Palestinian refugees gather outside the offices of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in Beirut on January 30, 2024 to protest against some countries' decision to stop funding the organization. (AFP)

Munir Nuseibah, professor of international law at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, said cutting UNRWA funds was “unjustifiable.”

He told Arab News: “Defunding UNRWA at a time during which the Palestinian population is suffering from Israel’s genocidal war and policies, including starvation, reflects complicity with this crime.

“Just when the International Court of Justice ordered allowing humanitarian services and aid access to Gaza’s civilians, Israel’s allies decided to defund UNRWA.”

After South Africa brought a case to the ICJ accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, the UN’s highest court ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent genocidal acts and to allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.

Some analysts have even accused donor nations of hypocrisy, highlighting occasions when UN agencies have been caught up in scandals yet have not lost their funding.

INNUMBERS

PALESTINIAN REFUGEES

  • 1.5m In Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank.
  • 489,292 Hosted by Lebanon.
  • 438,000 Hosted by Syria.
  • 31,400 Have fled Syria and now reside in Lebanon.

Source: UNRWA

Karam Shaar, a senior fellow at the New Lines Institute, told Arab News: “If you look at the conduct of the UN in other countries and the reaction of Western governments, relative to the way they reacted to what UNRWA might have done in Palestine, I think that reveals a predisposition to basically cut the aid on Palestinians.

“It also, to my mind, shows a level of hypocrisy. Has the UN been implicated in the past with significant scandals? Of course. But is the solution to just cut the funds without establishing alternative channels for a population that’s effectively under siege from all directions? That’s inhumane.”

UNRWA supports around 6 million Palestinian refugees throughout the region. Analysts expect the impact of the defunding of its services will be keenly felt by those countries hosting displaced households.

There were 489,292 Palestinian refugees registered in Lebanon as of March 2023, and 575,234 in Syria as of July 2022, according to UNRWA figures. An estimated 438,000 remain in Syria.




A Palestinian refugee holds a placard at a school belonging to UNRWA in the town of Sebline east of the southern Lebanese port of Saida, on March 12, 2018, during a protest against US aid cuts to the organization. (AFP)

Mohammad Al-Asadi, a Germany-based research economist at the Syrian Center for Policy Research, noted that the suspension of UNRWA funding “could have a devastating impact on the lives and livelihoods of Palestinian refugees living in Syria and Lebanon, as the vast majority of them are vulnerable.”

He told Arab News: “UNRWA is the sole provider of cash transfers and food baskets to Palestinian refugees affected by the Syrian conflict.

“Tens of thousands of families rely on this aid to secure basic nutrition needs. Suspending aid to these families will push them immediately below abject poverty level.”

Syria’s economy has been brought to its knees by more than a decade of fighting, sanctions, and isolation. The World Bank reclassified Syria in 2018 as a low-income country. Between 2010 and 2020, its gross domestic product shrank by more than a half.




A schoolboy holds a Palestinian flag as he stands with others wearing Palestinian keffiyeh scarves during a sit-in protest at the Shatila camp for Palestinian refugees in the southern suburb of Beirut on November 7, 2023. (AFP)

Although Palestinian refugees in Syria have the same rights as Syrian citizens in terms of employment, trade, and access to civil service positions and public services, Al-Asadi said that shutting down UNRWA operations “will have a substantial impact on increasing poverty incidence in the country, particularly among Palestinian refugees.”

He pointed out that ceasing UNRWA operations in Syria would “leave thousands of breadwinners unemployed, as UNRWA is a major employer of Palestinians and Syrians in its schools, medical clinics, and vocational training centers.”

He added that it would also force the agency to suspend its widespread vocational training programs, “leaving thousands of young Palestinian refugees unequipped in an economy where the unemployment rate exceeds 40 percent, according to SCPR estimates.”

Al-Asadi said: “The confluence of rising unemployment, the cessation of food and cash assistance, and the unattainable healthcare and education services is very likely to compel a significant influx of Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon across the Mediterranean to Europe.”

Furthermore, for both Syria and Lebanon, it “will cause a severe shock to the human capital reserve in these two countries, as UNRWA is the primary provider of education and healthcare services for Palestinian refugees.

“This will leave hundreds of thousands of families without access to affordable life-saving healthcare services. The already overcrowded education systems in both countries have no capacity to embed tens of thousands of students.

“This is particularly problematic in Lebanon, where public-sector-led schools host around 500,000 school-aged Syrian refugees.”




A woman sits with her child after fleeing the Ain El-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon’s southern coastal city of Sidon on September 9, 2023, amid renewed clashes between the Fatah movement and Islamists. (AFP)

Lebanese analyst Nasser Elamine told Arab News that in Lebanon, “defunding UNRWA means over 301,400 Palestinian refugees, the majority of whom already live under the poverty line, according to the UN, will effectively be abandoned by the world with no devices to secure the minimal requirements of daily life, including education and healthcare.”

Elamine said: “Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are denied access to work in trade-union-regulated professions, and with a real economy that barely produces jobs as it is (let alone following the 2019 economic collapse), Palestinians will have no way to even begin to fill the gap that a pause in UNRWA funding will leave.”

Lebanon prohibits Palestinian refugees from participating in around 70 occupations regulated by its trade unions, including in the fields of engineering, law, and medicine.

Pulling the financial plug on UNRWA is likely to have an adverse impact on the Lebanese economy, which has been in the throes of a ruinous financial crisis since 2019.

Elamine noted that the unemployment rate in Lebanon was “already at around 30 percent of the population, while labor force participation was at only 43 percent in 2022, according to UNICEF, and the multidimensional poverty rate is at 81 percent,” as per data from the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia.

“For the last year or so, Lebanon has managed to set up a facade of crisis normalization by effectively dollarizing half of its economy.

“UNRWA was responsible for bringing millions of dollars’ worth of hard currencies monthly into Lebanon through Lebanese banks where they would be spent in the form of salaries, projects, educational and health services, as well funds for small businesses.

“On top of that, the Lebanese state would receive a segment of those funds in return for allowing refugees to remain in the country. The sudden disappearance of these funds will necessarily leave the economy in shock — but to what extent remains to be determined.”




A handout picture released by UNRWA on April 17, 2015 and taken the day before shows displaced people from the nearby Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp queuing to receive aid from the organization in Yalda, south of Damascus. (AFP) 

According to UNRWA officials, the agency had already reached a “danger zone” in 2022 after more than a decade of underfunding. Last year, donations covered just 36 percent of its budget.

Beyond the humanitarian services provided by UNRWA, Lebanese economist Nadim Shehadi told Arab News that the agency’s significance lay primarily in being “the memory” of the Palestinian refugee population and a key entity for resolving the Palestinian issue.

He said: “As an institution, UNRWA is extremely important for any future settlement of the Palestinian question. UNRWA has the details and data of every Palestinian family — of every Palestinian refugee.”

Article 11 of UN Resolution 194 (III) entitles Palestinian refugees to either the right to return to their homes or to be resettled and receive compensation. Shehadi pointed out that the information held by UNRWA was essential to the implementation of the article.

“Any solution (to the Palestinian issue) would have to address the refugee issue. It is the main stumbling block for a comprehensive solution, and that solution, for being implemented, needs the data and the mechanism that only UNRWA can provide,” he added.

 


Yemen’s Houthi rebels blame US for fresh strikes

Updated 14 sec ago
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Yemen’s Houthi rebels blame US for fresh strikes

  • The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, saying they act in solidarity with Palestinians

SANAA: Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday blamed Washington for around 10 strikes in and around the capital Sanaa, as the United States pursues its campaign against the Iran-backed force.
The Houthi-run Saba news agency said two US strikes had targeted Arbaeen street in the capital, another the airport road, having earlier reported two strikes it blamed on “American aggression” and a series of prior bombardments on Sanaa.
The Houthi administration’s health ministry said 14 people were wounded in the Sawan neighborhood, according to Saba.
An AFP journalist heard loud explosions in the capital, which has been controlled by the Houthis since 2014.
The bombardment follows a Houthi strike against Washington’s ally Israel, which hit the perimeter of the country’s main airport on Sunday.
Eight people were wounded in US strikes on Sanaa in late April, according to the rebels, who also reported strikes in other parts of the country, including their stronghold Saada in the north.
The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, saying they act in solidarity with Palestinians.
The Yemeni rebels had paused their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire in the Gaza war.
But in March, they threatened to resume attacks on international shipping over Israel’s aid blockade on the Gaza Strip.
The move triggered a response from the US military, which began hammering the rebels with near-daily air strikes starting March 15 in a bid to keep them from threatening shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
US strikes on the rebels began under former president Joe Biden, but intensified under his successor Donald Trump.
Since March, the United States says it has struck more than 1,000 targets in Yemen.
 

 


Sultan of Oman reaffirms ties during visit to Algeria

Updated 04 May 2025
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Sultan of Oman reaffirms ties during visit to Algeria

  • The Omani leader is on a two-day visit to Algeria
  • The delegation includes foreign and defense ministers

LONDON: The Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tarik met Algerian President Abdelamdjid Tebboune on Sunday to discuss ties between their nations.

At the sultan's residence in the capital, Algiers, the leaders affirmed their commitment to enhancing relations to serve their countries' mutual interests, the Oman News Agency reported.

The Omani leader is on a two-day visit to Algeria. On Sunday, Tebboune received him at Houari Boumediene International Airport for an official reception.

Several ministers and officials are in the Omani delegation, including Sayyid Shihab bin Tariq Al-Said, Deputy Prime Minister for Defense Affairs, and Sayyid Badr Hamad Al-Busaidi, Minister of Foreign Affairs.


Can Iraq’s Development Road project become its gateway to prosperity?

Updated 05 May 2025
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Can Iraq’s Development Road project become its gateway to prosperity?

  • Once a hub of global trade, Iraq aims to reclaim role with a $20 billion project connecting the Gulf to Europe by road, rail, and pipeline
  • Experts say ambitious infrastructure project could prove transformative if it can overcome the political, logistical and financial hurdles

LONDON: Under the Abbasid Caliphate, some 1,200 years ago, Baghdad sat at a crossroads between continents, a global confluence of commerce, culture and learning, becoming one of the most important cities on the Silk Road — the vast trade network that linked Asia to Europe.

It is that same strategic positioning that the modern-day government of Iraq hopes to recreate through a mega-project that could transform the nation’s fortunes after decades of war, sanctions and underdevelopment, and in the process reshape international trade.

The Development Road scheme aims to connect the Arabian Gulf to the Mediterranean with a 1,200 km network of roads, railways and energy links from across Iraq to neighboring Turkiye.

The project is expected to cost up to $20 billion and will be constructed in partnership with Turkiye and with backing from Qatar as well as the UAE.

Turkey's Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu, UAE's Energy Minister Suhail Mohamed al-Mazrouei, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Qatar's Minister of Transport Jassim bin Saif bin Ahmed al-Sulaiti, and Iraq's Transport Minister Razzaq Muhaibas Al-Saadawi applaud together during their meeting for the signing of the "Development Road" framework agreement on security, economy, and development in Baghdad on April 22, 2024.

If successful, it could carve out a new future for Iraq, diversifying its economy and raising substantial revenues. It would help export the country’s plentiful energy resources, while also consolidating relations with Turkiye and the Gulf states.

But the project faces several challenges, both within Iraq and the wider region. Corruption, interstate rivalries, political instability and conflict could derail the scheme, as could competition from other trade corridors in the region.

Failure would raise uncomfortable questions about whether Iraq can ever move beyond its chaotic past to build the kind of country its people desperately seek.

“The Development Road project is one of the most important infrastructure projects initiated in Iraq since the formation of the modern Iraqi state in the 1920s,” Mohammed Hussein, a member of the Iraqi Economists Network, told Arab News.

Volunteers of the "army of Al-Quds (Jerusalem)", with pictures of their president Saddam Hussein on their chests during a military parade in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on February 4, 2003. (AFP)

The idea for a new trade corridor through Iraq has been around for decades. In the 1980s, the concept was branded the “dry canal” — tipped as an alternative to the Suez in Egypt. But wars and sanctions on Saddam Hussein’s regime prevented any progress.

In response to public outrage over Iraq’s continued economic malaise — especially given the size of its oil reserves — the concept has since re-emerged as part of a broader development agenda, helped along by a period of relative stability and improving relations with Turkiye.

The Development Road was launched in 2023 after a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani (C-R) and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C-L) attend the signing of the "Development Road" framework agreement on security, economy, and development in Baghdad on April 22, 2024. (AFP)

Central to the plan is the Grand Faw Port now under construction on Iraq’s slither of shallow coastline at the head of the Arabian Gulf. When completed, Iraqi officials say the port will have 100 berths, surpassing Jebel Ali in Dubai as the Middle East’s largest container port.

Grand Faw will connect to a network of highways and railways running through major Iraqi cities including Basra, Karbala, Baghdad and Mosul, all the way to the Turkish border at Faysh Khabur.

From there, they will connect to Turkiye’s networks, linking up with its major Mediterranean ports and its land border with Europe. Oil and gas pipelines are also planned to follow the route, linking Basra’s oil fields to Turkiye’s Ceyhan energy hub.

An Iraqi sails in the Shatt al-Arab river across from the Nahr Bin Omar oilfield in Iraq's southern province of Basra on July 18, 2022. (AFP)

The scheme, which will be built in three stages up to 2050, would see industrial areas constructed along its route. However, much of the project still remains in the planning phase.

In April last year, Turkiye, Iraq, the UAE and Qatar signed a joint cooperation agreement on the project during a long-awaited visit by Erdogan to Baghdad.

“The project aims to create a sustainable economy bridging east and west,” Al-Sudani’s office said, adding that it would “establish a new competitive transport route, and bolster regional economic prosperity.”

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani. (AFP)

A planned visit by the Iraqi prime minister to Turkiye on May 8 is expected to advance the plan further.

If successful, the project would bring numerous benefits to Iraq, diversifying its economy away from oil and gas and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. According to Hussein of the Iraqi Economists Network, the project could generate $4 billion per year in customs revenues.

“The Development Road is likely to enhance Iraq’s role in global trade and directly revitalize its non-oil economic sectors such as trade, transportation and tourism,” he said.

IN NUMBERS:

99% Oil’s share of Iraq’s exports over the past decade.

$20 billion Estimated cost of Development Road project.

(Sources: World Bank & media)

There would also be a major boost to Iraq’s strategic positioning, strengthening economic and security relations with Turkiye, the Gulf states and Europe.

“From a global perspective, the Development Road is extremely important for Iraq, as it positions the country as a land bridge between Asia and Europe,” said Hussein.

“It aims to serve as a new route for global trade from the Arab Gulf to Europe, transforming Iraq into a transit hub similar to the Suez Canal.”

Iraq's planned Development Road is envisioned to position the country as a land bridge between Asia and Europe. (Map Courtesy of Google)

Renad Mansour, a senior Iraq research fellow at Chatham House, believes the project represents a clear statement of Iraq’s ambition to put decades of chaos behind it and become a more influential power in the region.

The government sees the project “as an opportunity for Iraq, after years of conflict and dependencies, to start to regain some traction in the region by becoming an important central hub,” he told Arab News.

Iraq’s geographic position would become a “potential point of leverage” that could rebuild its regional position, he added.

Street vendors push their cart selling sweets across Al-Senak bridge over the Tigris river in central Baghdad during a dust storm on April 10, 2025. (AFP)

The Development Road also offers substantial benefits to Turkiye.

Ankara “views this project as a strategic opportunity to boost its regional role, enhance its trade ties with regional actors and solidify the economic connectivity in the region,” Sinem Cengiz, a Turkish political analyst, told Arab News.

It also marks a sea change in Turkiye-Iraq relations, which have long been dominated by border security, Turkiye’s conflict with Kurdish militants and control of water resources.

“From the Turkish side, it is an opportunity to transform its relations with Iraq from a security-oriented perspective to an economically integrated relationship,” said Cengiz.

If successful, Development Road project could diversify Iraq’s economy, increase energy exports and strengthen ties with regional powers. (AFP file)

“This project provides a framework for long-term mutual dependency and a rare chance for Turkiye and Iraq to compartmentalize, and institutionalize their relations.”

There are, however, an array of challenges and potential obstacles that could delay or scuttle the project altogether.

The biggest risks come from within Iraq itself. Since the 2003 US-led invasion, Iraq has experienced a devastating civil war, a savage conflict with Daesh extremists and the emergence of powerful Iran-backed militias.

An image uploaded on June 14, 2014 on the jihadist website Welayat Salahuddin Daesh (ISIS) militants leading dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them. (AFP)

“The Iraqi state remains fragmented and corruption is still a big challenge,” said Mansour. “There’s all sorts of challenges, political and security-wise, that would need to be addressed to ensure the sustainability of such a grand vision.”

The country still ranks poorly on Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index, although there has been gradual improvement since 2015. This, along with other bureaucratic obstacles, means ensuring efficient project management is a significant concern.

“Iraq’s reputation for corruption, weak law enforcement, bureaucratic inefficiency, and an underdeveloped business environment will certainly increase the project’s cost and duration,” said Hussein.

The nature of the project means it will have to be built through many regions of the country, each with its own ethnic, religious and political mix.

“The road will go through several different territories where the central government doesn’t have as much authority and you have different armed groups and different sides who would need to be part of this process or could turn into spoilers,” said Mansour.

The route avoids most of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in the north, apart from the last 20 km where it reaches the border with Turkiye, potentially creating new rifts with the country’s large Kurdish minority.

A view shows Iraq's northeastern city of Sulaymaniyah in the autonomous Kurdistan region at sunset. (AFP)

The Kurdistan Regional Government has accused the federal government of deliberately bypassing the territory and excluding Kurdish areas that would otherwise have benefited from the scheme, said Hussein.

“The project has raised concerns among KRG leaders, who are demanding it be designed to pass through at least two of the KRG provinces, Irbil and Duhok,” he said.

The federal government, however, denies the KRG’s claim, insisting the current route is based on cost-efficiency.

There are also major external challenges to the project.

Grand Faw Port is located just a few kilometers from Kuwait’s long-proposed Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port, which is also under construction. The projects have exacerbated a long-running dispute over the maritime border between the two states and raised tensions over competition between the two ports.

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani gives a speech during the ceremony of the beginning of the handover of the Grand Faw Port's five berths from the implementing Korean company, in the southern Basra province, on November 7, 2024, as the project approaches full completion. (AFP)

“To prevent tensions and avoid creating a sense of insecurity, Kuwait must be somehow integrated into the process,” said Cengiz. “This would make the project more regionalized and help build a more stable environment for cooperation.”

Iran, which has huge influence in Iraq, particularly through the militias it funds, is also watching the scheme warily. Some argue the corridor could benefit Iran, but could also pose significant competition to its Gulf ports and plans for its own trade route linking Asia to Europe.

Then there is the rivalry with existing trade routes, most notably the Suez Canal, which is vital to Egypt’s economy. Attacks on shipping in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthis have dramatically reduced shipping through the waterway, increasing the cost of transporting goods from Asia to Europe.

Iraqi officials claim the Development Road will offer a much faster route from Asia to Europe than the Suez, even without the current shipping disruption.

Another major corridor through the Middle East is also being developed between India, the Gulf states, and Europe, and was set to include Israel and Jordan. Known as the “India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor,” or IMEC, the project has won the backing of the US. However, the war in Gaza has presented challenges.

Map of the planned IMEC connection. (Wikimedia Commons: ecfr.eu)

IMEC was viewed by some as a response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative — the vast set of infrastructure projects launched in 2013 to create land and maritime networks between Asia and Europe.

China has not yet committed to providing financial backing to the Development Road but has hinted that the project could be integrated into its BRI, raising a possible point of contention with the US.

Despite these many challenges, there is widespread support within Iraq for the project. If successful, the Development Road could become a beacon of hope for a nation emerging from a long night.
 

 


Pope Francis’s popemobile set to become health clinic for Gaza children

Pope Francis (C) looks at model of the Western Wall square with religious leaders near the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Updated 04 May 2025
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Pope Francis’s popemobile set to become health clinic for Gaza children

  • Vehicle, used by the late pontiff during his 2014 visit to the Holy Land, is being outfitted with diagnostic and emergency medical equipment to help patients in Gaza
  • Francis had a number of popemobiles, with the one used in the 2014 visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories staying in the region following his return to the Vatican

VATICAN CITY: One of Pope Francis’s popemobiles is being transformed into a mobile health clinic for children in the Gaza Strip, fulfilling one of his final wishes, the Vatican’s official media outlet said on Sunday.
The vehicle, used by the late pontiff during his 2014 visit to the Holy Land, is being outfitted with diagnostic and emergency medical equipment to help young patients in the Palestinian enclave, where health services have been devastated by the Israeli invasion.
Pope Francis, who died last month, entrusted the initiative to the Catholic aid organization Caritas Jerusalem in the months before his death, Vatican News said.
“This is a concrete, life-saving intervention at a time when the health system in Gaza has almost completely collapsed,” Peter Brune, Secretary General of Caritas Sweden, which is supporting the project, told Vatican News.
The mobile unit will be equipped with rapid infection tests, vaccines, diagnostic tools, and suture kits, and staffed by medical personnel. Caritas plans to deploy the clinic to communities without access to functioning health care facilities once humanitarian access to Gaza is feasible.
“It’s not just a vehicle,” Brune added. “It’s a message that the world has not forgotten about the children in Gaza.”
Gaza has a tiny Christian community and the Vatican has said Francis used to call the Holy Family Church in Gaza on an almost daily basis for much of the war, which started in October 2023 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel.
Francis had a number of popemobiles, with the one used in the 2014 visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories staying in the region following his return to the Vatican.
A conclave to elect a new pope starts on May 7.


Lebanon holds first local elections in almost 10 years

Updated 04 May 2025
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Lebanon holds first local elections in almost 10 years

  • President Aoun pins national hopes on municipal revival
  • PM Salam appeals for a big turnout, with security forces placed on full alert

BEIRUT: The first municipal elections in Lebanon began on Sunday after a more than nine-year hiatus.

Voting is taking place by region, with the first round in the Mount Lebanon districts, including Beirut’s southern suburbs.

According to the Interior Ministry, 9,321 candidates, including 1,179 women, are running in Mount Lebanon, vying for seats on 333 municipal councils.

Voter turnout exceeded 35 percent less than three hours before the polls closed at 7 p.m. local time.

President Joseph Aoun highlighted the vote’s significance in restoring confidence among the Lebanese people and international community, demonstrating that Lebanon is rebuilding its institutions and is on the right path.

The polls are the first of his presidential term and are seen as an indicator of voting trends ahead of parliamentary elections in May 2026.

Parts of northern Lebanon will vote next Sunday, May 11, while Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley are scheduled to go to the polls on May 18. Voters in the southern regions, severely damaged following clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, will cast their ballots on May 24. 

Lebanon’s presidential vacuum and security developments since October 2023 have affected the civic election process for almost a decade. Authorities last conducted a local ballot in 2016.

Polling stations opened in Mount Lebanon, the first governorate to begin the elections, under the personal supervision of Aoun.

After two visits to the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior in the morning, Aoun said he had “full confidence in the success of this constitutional entitlement.”

He said: “What we are witnessing today in Mount Lebanon will motivate the other governorates. 

“The goal is to revive municipalities as a prelude to reviving the entire nation.”

Aoun also urged voters not to let sectarian, “partisan or financial factors” impact their vote.

On the eve of the elections, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam took to social media to send a message to voters urging them to vote in large numbers.

He described the election as a crucial step toward executing the expanded decentralization mandated by the Taif Agreement, which faced delays for over 35 years and was vital for the growth of municipalities.

Sunday’s elections varied in intensity by district, especially in areas with party and family rivalries. Hezbollah, the Free Patriotic Movement, and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party aimed to retain control of municipalities against challenges from the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party, and civil society activists. 

Supporters from various parties and political factions hurried to include their candidates on most competing lists. This led voters, like one from the Harb family in Beirut’s southern suburb, to suggest “these elections are a crucial political battle, not a competition focused on development.”

Many dynamics have changed since 2016 regarding political and party balances and the map of alliances in Lebanon.

The elections took place in the districts of Metn, Keserwan, Jbeil, Chouf, Aley, and Baabda, which include the southern suburb of Beirut, with security provided by the Lebanese Armed Forces and Internal Security Forces. 

Commando regiments and marine commando reserves were placed on full alert.

In recent weeks, Hezbollah has reached out to families in towns within the southern suburbs of Beirut to create lists that would be appointed unanimously and include supporters from those families. It succeeded in some areas and failed in others. 

The southern suburbs of Beirut, along with the southern and Bekaa governorates, will hold elections later and reflect the level of public support for Hezbollah through the lists endorsed by the party.

The towns of Haret Hreik and Ghobeiry engaged in an electoral battle between closed lists of Hezbollah candidates and incomplete lists of families and young activists.

The electoral process in Mount Lebanon experienced some disorder at polling stations.

The central operations room for municipal elections at the Ministry of Interior reported receiving numerous complaints from various regions involving administrative violations, breaches of electoral law, security issues, conflicts among competitors, and instances of electoral bribery.

The Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections reported several violations, including “the failure of voters to use privacy screens and the presence of roaming representatives accompanying voters into polling stations with the intent to influence their electoral decisions.”

There was a noticeable shift in this election toward campaigning through smartphones, which promoted candidates and facilitated communication with voters.

The presence of candidate posters and banners in streets and neighborhoods has decreased, replaced by social media reels, stories, and closed groups.

The municipalities of Burj Al-Barajneh, Tahwitat Al-Ghadir-Laylaki, and Chiyah were contested unopposed.