UN agency staff raises $125,000 for suffering families in Beit Hanoun

Staff members of the main United Nations agency caring for Palestinian refugees have raised $125,000 to aid anguished families in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, where a six-day Israeli siege in November 2006 took the lives of 82 Palestinians and injured 26 others.

“I am sitting among you toady and my heart goes out to those who suffered and are still suffering from the tragedy at Beit Hanuon,” said Karen Koning AbuZayd, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Speaking at a ceremony last Friday to celebrate the accomplishment of the agency’s Area Staff Union also attended by the President of the Municipality of Beit Hanoun, she pledged that UNRWA will continue to support those picking up their lives in the aftermath of the attack.

According to the agency, 80 houses were either completely or partially destroyed, while 1,000 more were damaged. When their residence was hit by tank shells on 9 November 2006, 10 members of the Al Athamna family were killed.

The staff launched an appeal for funds shortly after the attack, and the distribution of the funds began this weekend.

Despite the difficulties in dealing with their own economic situations, over 5,000 staff, more than 50 per cent of local staff working in Gaza, contributed to the fund. More than 40 Gaza staff members gave over four days’ pay.

UNRWA employees “not only carry out their duties at work,” said Mohammad Aklok, the Area Staff Union head in the Gaza field office, “but they also go beyond the call of duty, donating from their own salaries to the families of Beit Hanoun.”

Of the $125,000, $51,500 will be distributed to 134 families, and the remainder will be put towards rebuilding a clinic and family centre, which, in a show of gratitude by the town’s residents, will be named after UNRWA’s employees.

Area Staff Union President Adel Eid said that the “donation emphasises the fact that we care and support the people of Beit Hanoun as employees of UNRWA, but also as people; people who have a deep rooted sense of what it means to be a community.”