The United Nations will ask donors for about 50 million dollars in emergency humanitarian aid for Palestinians, the head of the UN Palestinian relief agency said Wednesday.
Peter Hansen, commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said the money was needed to buy food and medicine and to help Palestinians barred from getting to work in Israel.
He told a news conference the appeal was being drawn up with other UN agencies, and that 30 million dollars was needed for Gaza and another 20 million for the West Bank.
He said there had been an "encouraging response" to a flash appeal, which had brought in 1.5 million dollars within days.
"When the suffering is greatest, the resources flow fastest," he said.
But while the donations had solved a cash-flow problem," UNRWA's budget deficit is 30 to 40 million dollars and I'm not sure that we can make it through December."
The latest death toll after almost five weeks of bloody clashes was 164, including 152 Palestinians, five of whom were killed on Wednesday, he said.
Just under half the Palestinians shot dead were aged 18 or younger.
Less often reported was the toll of wounded, he said.
"There are now well over 6,000 casualties. Many of them will be badly disabled for life," he added.
Hansen also noted that "the damage to the Palestinian economy has been critical," with about 64 million dollars alone in lost income from unemployed workers since the start of the violence.
The biggest impact had been on public health, where "normal hospital life has come to a halt."
Surgeons were able to operate only in urgent, life-threatening cases, he said.
Hansen said casualties were highest on Fridays, when protestors took to the streets after leaving weekly prayers at the mosque.
"Hospitals like to start Friday morning with empty beds. Those with light wounds are all sent home and only people on life-support systems are kept in hospital," he added.
UNRWA staff had been shot at, he said. An ambulance driver had been shot and wounded while lifting a patient into his ambulance.
"We have also had trucks with up to 18 bullet holes in them," he added.
"You have to be very careful and not run between the stone-throwers and the Israeli soldiers, but it is not as if we were in mortal danger," he said.
None of UNRWA's international staffer had been relocated, while some non-essential local staff had been moved to Amman.
He said the "Israeli forces have continued to uproot virtually every living thing along the road to Gaza" to prevent Palestinians hiding behind trees and bushes -- UNITED NATIONS (AFP)
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