BFF-56 UN staff pulled out of Gaza over security concerns after job cuts

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UN staff pulled out of Gaza over security concerns after job cuts

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, Oct 1, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The UN agency
for Palestinian refugees said Monday it was temporarily withdrawing part of
its foreign staff from the Gaza Strip following security concerns linked to
job cuts in the Palestinian enclave.

It said in a statement it had “decided to temporarily withdraw part of its
international staff from Gaza following a series of worrying security
incidents affecting its personnel in the strip.”

A source with the agency said around 10 staff members crossed into Israel
from the Gaza Strip on Monday.

The Israeli defence ministry unit that oversees the crossing said an
unspecified number of foreign employees from the agency known as UNRWA “were
evacuated from the Gaza Strip to Israel”.

UNRWA employees in the strip have held strikes, sit-ins and other protests
since the agency announced in July it was cutting more than 250 jobs in Gaza
and the occupied West Bank.

Hundreds of full-time roles have also become part-time.

Laid-off workers warn that their families will be at serious risk in
blockaded Gaza, where unemployment is at some 53 percent.

The cuts come as a result of US President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel
all aid to the agency.

The UNRWA source said a protest was held Monday outside a Gaza City hotel
where agency officials were meeting.

The agency’s statement said that “earlier today, a number of staff were
harassed and prevented from carrying out their duties”.

“Some of these actions have specifically targeted the UNRWA management in
Gaza,” it said.

It called on the authorities in the enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas
“to respond to its repeated demands to provide effective protection to its
employees and facilities.”

The United States has traditionally been UNRWA’s largest contributor,
providing around $350 million (300 million euros) a year, but Trump has
cancelled all support.

Around 13,000 people work for UNRWA in Gaza, where more than two-thirds of
the roughly two million residents are eligible for aid.

The agency also says more than 200,000 Palestinians attend its schools in
the Gaza Strip.

Despite the removal of part of its foreign staff, UNRWA operations were
continuing in Gaza, the agency said.

Its director of operations and other international staff were remaining in
Gaza, UNRWA said.

BSS/AFP/MRI/2238 HRS