Palestinian council begins Syria relief campaign
Published today (updated) 30/06/2012 20:59
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=500039

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas has instructed an official
council to start a fund raising campaign for victims of the violence in
Syria, a statement said.

Director of the Palestinian Economic Council for Reconstruction and
Development Muhammad Ishtayya will launch a month-long campaign in
cooperation with UN agencies, his office said.

The aid is directed to ease the suffering of Syrians and Palestinian
refugees in the country, it added.

Donations will be held in accounts supervised by auditing firms, it
continued.

The UN estimates at least 10,000 people have been killed in Syria since the
government began its crackdown on protests 15 months ago, now moving closer
to civil war.

Aid groups have warned that they face limited access to the hardest-hit
regions of Syria.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has been turned back from the
battered Syrian city of Homs twice in the past ten days, despite an
agreement by rebels and the government to allow humanitarian access.