UN Palestinian agency says half its schools hit by conflict

Istanbul / AFP

Nearly half of the schools run by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees have been hit by conflict in the last five years, it said on Monday on the sidelines of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier reminded participants on the opening day of the two-day summit that attacks on schools and hospitals in conflict cannot go unpunished any longer.
But the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said 302 out of 692 schools it runs for Palestinian refugees in Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and West Bank have suffered damage due to conflict in the last half decade. “Nearly half of the 692 schools run across the region have been impacted, attacked or otherwise rendered inoperable by conflict or violence in the last five years,” it said in a report unveiled at the summit. UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, complained that the figure was “staggering”. Kraehenbuehl called for “refrain from such attacks, to respect the civilian character of UN installations and to spare the lives of children, civilians and humanitarian workers.”