'Like cutting the oxygen' Palestinian fear rises over threat to lifeline

Pressing her face to the blue bars of a pharmacy window, Fatmeh Jahaleen pleaded for just a few extra boxes of medication.

- Ruth Michaelson Sufian Taha Quique Kierszenbaum

She relies on the pharmacy inside an East Jerusalem clinic run by the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, for a monthly supply of blood pressure and kidney medications, as well as insulin.

"Where am I supposed to get my medicine? This would cost me 400 [Israeli shekels - £90] a month otherwise. We can't afford that; we are refugees," she said.

Then there are the blood tests she needs every three months, which would otherwise cost her another 150 shekels, or her regular treatment at an eye hospital, also covered by Unrwa, which would otherwise prove costly.

Across Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a disaster looms for Unrwa with a ban imposed by Israel's parliament due to come into force at the end of this month.

"Are you sure that Unrwa will close?" Jahaleen asked, slapping her hands against her thighs in distress. "I really don't know what to do - only God can help us if they close this clinic."

When the Israeli parliament passed the bill to ban Unrwa last October, Fathi Saleh, the director of services for the Shuafat refugee camp on the outskirts of Jerusalem, arrived at his office to find hundreds of terrified people demanding to know what could happen if the agency was closed.

"Cutting the services we provide is like cutting the oxygen supply to people here," he said. "It will devastate people."

Saleh is a child of the camp, whose office sits on the site of a municipal cafeteria for children, where he supervises the same schools, medical services and sanitation workers that he has used his entire life. Even so, what will happen on Saturday, the first day of February, when he arrives at his office remains a mystery.