UN warns it may halt food aid to Palestinians displaced from Lebanese camp

The United Nations agency tasked with assisting Palestinian refugees warned today that a funding shortfall means it may soon have to stop distributing food to more than 3,000 families displaced by deadly violence at a camp in northern Lebanon last year.

Unless funds are found in the coming weeks, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported that it will have to cease food distributions to 3,100 families and also halt rental subsidies for about 27,000 people by the end of next month.

As many as 30,000 Palestinians were displaced – some for the third time in their lives – from Lebanon’s Nahr el-Bared refugee camp last year amid heavy fighting between Lebanese Government forces and Fatah el-Islam gunmen.

UNRWA said in June that it needs about $445 million to rebuild Nahr el-Bared, which was devastated by the fighting.

The reconstruction of the camp would be the largest undertaking in the agency’s history, and requires the building of a new town with houses, schools, health centres, mosques and other community facilities, as well as a UN compound and associated infrastructure.