Qatar donates $1.5m in aid to UNRWA

Qatar Charity has donated $1.5 million to support food aid in the besieged Gaza Strip, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced yesterday.

“ Qatar Charity contributed US$ 1.5 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in support of the Agency’s food assistance in Gaza. Some 90,300 food-insecure persons living in the blockaded Gaza Strip will be able to meet their most basic food requirements for three months (one quarter) in this round of aid distribution,” an UNRWA statement said.

Since 2007, Israel has been imposing a blockade on Gaza, where more than two million Palestinians live, leaving them in an economic and living crisis.

“ As the blockade enters its fifteenth year, unemployment levels continue to increase each year with every graduation cycle. This dire unemployment situation compounds an already fragile economy, deteriorated infrastructure, internal political divisions and repeated cycles of conflict,” the UN continued.

“We believe that UNRWA food assistance to Palestine refugees provides them with food security and maintains their dignity,” Director of UNRWA, Thomas White, said in a statement, noting that the support of Qatar Charity “ indicates high commitment to the humanitarian values and engagement in the international development.”

Last year, Qatar granted Gaza with $360 million, an amount that was disbursed throughout 2021. In 2019, the Gulf state pledged $480 million to support of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

UNRWA was established in 1949 to provide assistance and protection to refugees in five areas, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, until they are given their right to return to the homes they were forced out of as a result of the creation of the state of Israel.

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