Syria’s Palestinian refugees facing neglect in Gaza Strip

Palestinians speak to Arabstoday about their suffering in Gaza Gaza – Mohammed Habib Palestinian refugees coming from war-torn Syria are facing neglect from government departments and NGOs in the Gaza Strip, sources have claimed. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees [UNRWA] has meanwhile claimed it is supplying displaced persons with aid.
Atef al-Imawi, a Palestinian-Syrian who had lived in Syria for 30 years before moving to Gaza in November 2012, told Arabstoday: “We are totally neglected by official and non-official organisations. We have no home and no income for our family of nine.”
"We're living in Gaza at the expense of our relatives,” al-Imawi added.
Al-Imawi says UNRWA has provided his family with blankets, bed linen and kitchenware, while Gazan authorities have given some household supplies such as a 25-kilogramme bag of flour and cans of sardines.
Some families have received two months' unemployment payments, al-Imawi said.
The situation in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus is “dire,” the refugee told Arabstoday, with less than 10 percent of the original population living there now.
“Everyone has left either for the suburbs of Damascus or Lebanon,” he said.
Abu Mohammed, once a clothing merchant in Syria, said: "Our suffering in Gaza is indescribable. We're just waiting for things to calm down in Syria so we can go home to our homes."
Abu Mohammed, who came to Gaza in January, demanded the government provide Palestinian families with jobs and homes.
"The Ministry of Social Affairs called me to work for two months for 800 shekels but I said no because I'm renting a flat for $200,” he said. “How am I supposed to cover household expenses?"
Omar Ouda, another Palestinian who fled Syria, claimed that “Palestinians’ suffering began in Syria.”
"We accepted our situation and lived as strangers in Syria until the revolution broke out,” he said. “Now the suffering has just shifted to Gaza."
Ouda claimed 500,000 Palestinians were living in Syria before the outbreak of the 22-month conflict to oust President Bashar al-Assad. 2,500 others had been killed  or declared missing.
UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Husna said the organisation has been providing support in education, health and supplies to Palestinians returning from Syria. He said 150 individuals have gone to UNRWA and received aid.
According to local sources, approximately 300 Palestinian families have come to the Gaza Strip from Syria since violence broke out there in March 2011.