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While this UNRWA's definition of a Palestinian refugee would include the Jews of the Old City of Jerusalem, Kfar Etzion and other locations, there appear to be no Jewish refugees recognized by UNRWA.

All Palestinian refugees who are registered with UNRWA and are in need of assistance are eligible for help from UNRWA. In 2004, there were 4 million registered Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA. [2]

UNRWA provides facilities in 59 recognized refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Together these camps house approximately one-third of all registered Palestinian refugees. It also provides facilities in other areas where large numbers of registered Palestinian refugees live outside of recognized camps. In order for a camp to be recognized by UNRWA, there must be an agreement between the host government and UNRWA governing use of the camp. UNRWA does not itself run the camp, but provides services to the camp.

Services provided by UNRWA include health care, schools, and distribution of food and clothing aid. The largest expenditure, amounting to almost half, is on education.

The UNRWA is the largest agency of the United Nations, employing over 25,000; 99% of UNRWA's employees are locally-recruited Palestinians. [3]

Annual funding for UNRWA is in the order of several hundred million US dollars, of which the majority comes from donor countries. A smaller amount comes directly from the United Nations. Contributions and pledges in 2003 totalled almost $440 million US dollars; the major contributors (based on 2003 figures) were the United States ($134 million), the European Commission ($94 million), the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly and SwedenThe Kingdom of Sweden Konungariket Sverige in Swedish) is a Nordic country in Scandinavia, in Northern Europe. It is bordered by Norway on the west, Finland on the northeast, the Skagerrak and the Kattegat on the southwest, and the Baltic Sea and the Gulf.

1 UNRWA and Israel

Israel and UNRWA have found themselves in conflict many times since the agency's establishment. UNRWA have often accused Israel of interfering with its humanitarian work. In AprilApril is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 30 days. Derived from the Latin aprilis either from the Latin word aperire which means "to open", probably referring to growing plants in spring, or from the Etruscan name Apru for Aphr 20042004 is a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 2004 calendar), and has also been designated the: International Year of Rice International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition Elections are to be held in 73 co, UNRWA Commissioner Hansen claimed that Israel had imposed restrictions on the movement of agency staff, forcing them to temporarily suspend emergency food deliveries in the Gaza strip. He also raised concerns about UNRWA being charged fees for transporting goods through Israeli checkpoints. In addition, UNRWA have accused Israel several times of shooting at ambulances. In some cases, Israel has denied these, in others claimed that the measures were necessary for reasons of security.

On the other hand, Israeli officials have often alleged that, whether knowingly or not, UNRWA have aided Palestinian terrorist organizations, such as HamasHamas acronym of Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah ( Arabic: Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas is also Arabic for 'zeal' or 'courage') is a Palestinian Islamist paramilitary and political organization, regarded by some as a militant organization and by o. Accordingly, Israel claims that UNRWA facilities, such as schools and ambulances are used by terrorists for the purposes of training and shelter. They have claimed that this provides justification for their restrictions on UNRWA. UNRWA has always denied such allegations and called them "baseless".

Several months ago, Israel complained that Hansen had submitted exaggerated reports to the UN about the number of houses demolishedOperation Rainbow is a controversial military operation begun in May 18 2004 in the Gaza Strip. Israel says its aim was to clear " terrorist infrastructure", to find smuggling tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt, and to kill militants after the dea by the IDF in RafahRafah (Arabic: Hebrew: ) is a town in the Gaza Strip, on the Egyptian border, and a nearby town on the Egyptian side of the border, on the Sinai Peninsula. Over the ages is has been known as Robihwa by Egyptians, Rafihu by Assyrians, Raphia by Greeks and. Recently, Hansen said that he was forced to send foreign workers employed by UNRWA out of the Gaza strip, because Israel had been harassing them. An inquiry later revealed that the decision to remove the workers had been motivated by fear of violence at the hands of Palestinian elements. Israel also complained to Annan following the publication of an article by Hansen in the International Herald Tribune in which he denounced Israel in harsh language.

In 2003, United States "Operations Support Officers" made random and unannounced inspections of 76% of UNRWA's West Bank facilities and 85% of UNWRA's Gaza Strip facilities to investigate claims of terrorist use of the facilities. They reported that no such uses had been detected. Nevertheless there is a continuing disagreement between the United States and UNRWA over whether UNRWA is doing enough to prevent relief being given to persons involved in terrorism.

In his October 3, 2004 interview with the CBC TV ([4], [5]), Peter Hansen said that some of UNRWA employees are Hamas members. Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department, the European Union and other states such as Canada, due to its involvement in suicide bombing against Israeli civilians.:

"Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime," the CBC web site quoted Hansen as saying. "Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another." "We demand of our staff, whatever their political persuasion is, that they behave in accordance with UN standards and norms for neutrality".

Annan agreed on October 4, 2004 to investigate claims that Palestinian terrorists are using UNRWA ambulances, though he supported the UN's initial finding that the claim was not true. [6]