UNITED NATIONS: A top United Nations official war­ned on Wednesday “the stark conditions afflicting millions of displaced Pales­tinians acr­oss the Middle East risk destabilising the region and plunging it into a deeper humanitarian and security crisis.

“The isolation, exclusion and dispossession of Pale­stine refugees in Syria, Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon represent a time-bomb for the Middle East region,” Pierre Kräh­enbühl, the Comm­issioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refu­gees, said at a meeting of the agency’s Advisory Commi­ssion of major donors and host governments, held in Amman, Jordan.

Amid an explosive conflict in Syria and ongoing tensions across Gaza and the West Bank, Mr Krähenbühl told delegates in attendance that more than five million Palestinian refugees currently face “an existential crisis on many fronts”, ultimately resulting in “a denial of dignity and rights that must be addressed”.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2015

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