RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- The directors of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip and West Bank are leaving their posts, agency representative Chris Gunness said.
John Ging, the Gaza director for the agency, will take a senior position in the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in New York, and Barbara Shenstone, the West Bank director, will return to her native Canada, Gunness said.
Ging has been with the UNRWA for five years and Shenstone for almost four years.
Ging and Shenstone "have made exceptional contributions to UNRWA's work under the most difficult circumstances," UNRWA Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi said.
"Their commitment to ensuring the quality of UNRWA services has been extraordinary; their advocacy in support of rights has been outstanding -- be it amidst heavy bombardment in Gaza during armed conflict or in responding to the abysmal rights abuses in the occupied West Bank."
