The government of Spain announced today that it will send additional aid of 20 million euros to the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), in order for that body to deal with the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
This was announced by Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Albarez at a joint press conference in Madrid with the head of the UN agency Filipe Lazarini.
Lazarini expressed hope that the Spanish government’s decision will encourage some of the countries that have recently suspended aid to the UN agency to continue it.
According to him, 16 countries have suspended aid to UNWRA and this represents 450 million dollars (about 410 million euros).
Lazarini called for the opening of land crossings to the Gaza Strip so that humanitarian aid could arrive that way, as airdrop operations have limited effectiveness.
The Spanish minister said that aid to the UN agency will arrive in four to six weeks and added that last Sunday it was decided to help with 3.5 million euros.
Albarez welcomed last week’s decision by the European Union to grant 50 million euros in aid to UNRWA, Beta news agency writes.
