UNRWA Background Photograph: Refugees

Under an agreement between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Egyptian Government, the latter offered to make available for the benefit of refugees in the Gaza strip not less than 50,000 feddans of undeveloped state domain in north-west Sinai. Reclamation of the area would be accomplished by utilization of the Nile waters which would be siphoned off in sufficient quantities to reclaim and permanently irrigate the area to provide 10,000 refugee families from the Gaza strip with a means of livelihood by cultivating the soil.
A section of the project area, as it looks now. It has an annual rainfall of less than two inches. Mostly desert land, it contains a few brakish wells, a few wandering bedouins and scattered date palms in the hollows.