Jun 29, 2007, 11:59 GMT
Geneva - The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, urged the international community Friday to throw a lifeline to sick and dying Palestinian children, among them a 15-month-old baby, stranded in Iraq.
The baby boy, facing paralysis, was among the growing list of children in urgent need of medical help. There was also a two-year- old with cerebral palsy and very low immunity, who needed physical therapy and had stopped eating.
The children are stranded in Baghdad or in the makeshift refugee camp of Waleed on the Iraqi side of the Syrian border and were identified by UNHCR medical teams. The agency had already highlighted the case of two children suffering from cancer and that of a young boy who risked losing his leg because of a blood disorder.
The agency and the International Committee of the Red Cross were trying to provide care.
'A humanitarian solution' was urgently needed for 1,450 Palestinians living in dire conditions at two border camps, as well as for up to 13,000 still living in Baghdad with no access to another country, UNHCR said.
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