Bahrain’s Royal Humanitarian Foundation (RHF) has donated $3 million for construction of a new health centre in Jalazone refugee camp in the West Bank.
The amount has been handed over to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
The health centre will serve around 15,000 Palestine refugee patients, the UN agency said yesterday.
“The new centre will be wheelchair-accessible, thanks to ramps and an elevator,” the UNRWA said in a statement.
“The building will include a centralised air-conditioning and heating system, large waiting areas, an X-Ray room, and a laboratory including a bio-lab and storage.”
The Jalazone camp is located north of Ramallah and directly borders the Israeli settlement of Beit El to the east, which is illegal under international law.
It is one of 19 UNRWA Palestine refugee camps in the West Bank and was established in 1949.
Over the years, with population growth, the camp has become overcrowded with its infrastructure being insufficient for inhabitants.
“UNRWA plays a vital role in providing basic services and interventions to Palestine refugees in its fields of operations, including education, health and social protection,” said RHF secretary general Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.
“This contribution reaffirms RHF’s strong support for the Palestinian cause and for addressing the essential needs of Palestine refugees at large and in the West Bank specifically.”
RHF has funded several welfare projects such as a health centre, library, and a centre for artificial limbs, in co-operation with relevant bodies, including United Nations agencies, assisting thousands of Palestinians.
Many children are also studying at the Al Manama School in Tel Al Hawwa, Gaza.
“UNRWA is grateful for the contribution from the Royal Humanitarian Foundation, which will help secure sanitary, privacy-oriented, and disability-accessible environment for thousands of Palestine refugee patients,” said the agency’s External Relations and Communications director Tamara Alrifai.
“As violence dangerously increases in the West Bank, UNRWA’s ability to provide essential services to Palestine refugees must remain strong.
“The agency depends on support from generous donors, like RHF, to carry out its mission.”
More than 39,300 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s Gaza offensive since last October.
Israel launched its war after Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
According to the UN agency, more than 60 per cent of Gaza’s infrastructure has now been destroyed or damaged, with more than 90pc of the 2.3 million population uprooted.
In the latest sign of a worsening public health emergency, the Gaza Health Ministry on Monday declared a polio epidemic, following the detection of the virus in sewage samples. The ministry said the detection of polio, long since eradicated in the enclave, ‘poses a health threat to the people of Gaza, to neighbouring countries, and a setback to global efforts to end polio’.
UNRWA operates in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The agency continues to face financial challenges that threaten its ability to maintain lifesaving services for refugees.
Bahrain has dispatched tonnes of aid assignments and collected funds via national campaigns since last year to help Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
sandy@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))