10 May 2016•Update: 10 May 2016
By Furkan Guldemir
BEIRUT
A demonstration was held outside the Beirut office of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on Tuesday to protest an agency decision to cut aid to Palestinian refugees.
Scores of Palestinian refugees who recently fled war-torn Syria to Lebanon took part in the demonstration.
Protesters, including a number of women and children, waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans critical of the UN and UNRWA.
"Palestinian refugees in Syria who have sought refuge in Lebanon face serious problems in terms of health, accommodation and education," Dayfallah Yusuf, a Palestinian refugee who recently fled to Lebanon from Syria’s Yarmouk refugee camp, told Anadolu Agency.
"The UNRWA is cutting aid that we desperately need," he added.
Last year, the UNRWA first announced plans to reduce health, education and humanitarian aid to refugees due to budget shortfalls.
The announcement led to a series of protests outside the agency’s offices in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine.
UNRWA was established in 1949 by the UN -- following the establishment of Israel -- to provide aid to some five million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
According to the UN, roughly 500,000 Palestinian refugees currently live in Lebanon.
