Speaking on November 4 to a UN session on humanitarian work with
Palestinian refugees, the Vatican’s representative praised Lebanon and
Jordan for “their enduring collaboration” with the work, and said that
both countries need international help as they cope with a flood of
refugees.Archbishop Bernardito Auza observed that both Lebanon and Jordan, in spite of their limited resources, have taken in many Palestinian refugees in the past and are now “contending heroically, together with some other countries in the region, with the influx of refugees from Iraq and Syria.”
The archbishop reported that more than 5 million Palestinians are currently in need of humanitarian assistance.
To compound the problem, he said, refugees are the victims of “heinous crimes,” such as the deliberate targeting of refugee camps in Syria.
Regrettably, he said, there is not “much hope that all these barbaric acts against the civilian population along with the Palestinian refugees will end soon.”