GAZA, Thursday, February 6, 2020 (WAFA) – A mistake by a Gaza contractor in which the word “refugee” was left out from signs placed on some schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip has caused big concern today but was quickly clarified by UNRWA.

The concern was caused most likely in light of American and Israeli efforts to do away with the Palestinian refugee issue and cancel their status as refugees by ending the 50-year-long work UNRWA has been doing with 5.2 million Palestinian refugees worldwide.

UNRWA Gaza spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna told WAFA in a telephone interview that what happened was an unintentional technical mistake by the contractor who was doing finishing work in the schools.

He said the contractor inadvertently dropped the word “refugee” from the signs placed at the schools and that UNRWA had nothing to do with this.

Rather, explained Abu Hasna, UNRWA acted quickly and immediately started to remove the signs and have them re-worked to include the term “refugee” to them, explaining that there is no change in UNRWA policy on the refugee issue.

M.K.