Lebanese PM puts Palestinian refugee numbers at 177,000

By Wassem Saif al-Din

BEIRUT (AA) - Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday said the number of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon currently stands at 177,000.

Speaking from government headquarters in central Beirut, Hariri made the assertion while unveiling the results of a recent census conducted in Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps.

The prime minister also emphasized Lebanon’s solidarity with Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause.

“As a state, we appreciate the problems suffered by Palestinian refugees in our country,” he said.

"Lebanon will not abandon the Palestinians’ right to return to an independent state [of Palestine] with Jerusalem as its capital," he added.

Hariri went on to note the ongoing budget crisis plaguing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which, he said, had “negatively affected the needs of [Palestinian] refugees in Lebanon".

In this regard, he said there were “certain parties” -- which he did not name -- that wanted to see UNRWA dissolved.

"But we will oppose the relief agency’s dissolution," he asserted.

Hariri also called on donor countries to increase their levels of assistance to UNRWA “with a view to meeting refugees’ basic needs and ensuring a just solution to their cause”.

Due to longstanding social sensitivities, no countrywide census has been conducted in Lebanon since 1932.