Islamic Relief is providing 200 female-headed households with water filtration systems in Gaza.

The reverse osmosis filtration units will provide 200 vulnerable families with access to safe drinking water. For the last few years, Gaza’s only aquifer has been over-pumped which has led to seawater intruding into the water system. Wastewater is improperly treated and fed back into Gaza’s sea. Tap water in coastal homes has an overbearing taste of sea salt.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi visited Syria on 21-23 May to see first-hand the impact of conflict and displacement on Palestine refugees and to provide his personal support and encouragement for UNRWA’s operations. Mr. Grandi met with Syrian Government officials and reinforced his message to Palestinians to preserve their neutrality and to keep out of the conflict.

HIGHLIGHTS

● In the West Bank, Palestinian injuries from Israeli security forces in 2013 twice as high as in 2012.
● Children as young as seven detained by Israeli forces in Hebron, according to international monitors.
● Restrictions on entry of materials delay WASH projects in Gaza.
● Thirty per cent increase in displacement from demolitions in 2013 in the West Bank.

A celebration was held yesterday to highlight the achievements of UNRWA’s Japanese-funded University Scholarship Programme for Palestine refugee students.

Access to higher education is limited for many Palestine refugees because of their difficult socio-economic situation, hampering employment opportunities in an increasingly competitive job market.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Syrian refugees exceed 1.5 million

• J-RANS II finds significant deterioration of the humanitarian situation

• Health needs grow more acute

• Donor funding increases ahead of revision to U.N. appeals

Support for Gaza and the West Bank – PSE131

Preliminary Appeal Target: US$ 1,001,913

Geneva, 22 May 2013

Dear Colleagues,

At least 1,300 people currently live in the Masafer Yatta area of south Hebron Hills. Palestinian communities have been living in this area for decades, many since before the Israeli occupation began in 1967. However, in the 1980s the Israeli authorities designated most of this area, including 14 communities, as a closed military zone for training, a so-called “Firing Zone 918".

May 2013 - Over 500 Gazan men, including 14 minors, are currently being held as prisoners and detainees in Israel. In July 2012, after a five-year hiatus, family visits to Gazan inmates in Israel were resumed. From that time until 22 April 2013, most of the inmates have received visits. Israel permits inmates to be visited by their parents, wives and children under eight years old; children over eight, siblings and grandparents are not allowed to visit. Permission for children under the age of eight to visit their imprisoned fathers was granted only in May 2013.

05/22/2013 14:35 GMT

HOMS, Syria, May 22, 2013 (AFP) - The conflict in Syria has displaced more than two-thirds of Palestinian refugees living in the country, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees said on Wednesday.

"We have registered approximately 530,000 Palestinian refugees. We believe that almost all of them, certainly maybe 70-80 percent, are displaced from their normal homes," UNRWA Commissioner General Filippo Grandi told AFP on a visit to Syria.