NEW DELHI: India on Monday donated USD 2.5 million to UNRWA for humanitarian assistance in Gaza. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), functional since 1950, carries out direct relief and work programmes for registered Palestine refugees and is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states.
India gave the amount as part of its annual contribution of USD 5 million for the year 2023-24 to support the agency's core programmes and services, including education, healthcare, relief, and social services provided to Palestinian refugees, the Representative Office of India at Ramallah said.
The contribution was handed over by the Representative of India (ROI) to Palestine, Renu Yadav, to the Director of Partnerships, Department of External Relations of UNRWA, Karim Amer.
The ROI underlined India's continued support for the agency's activities in the region and the services it provides to Palestinian refugees during the handover ceremony at UNRWA's field office in Jerusalem, an official press release said. The UNRWA has been struggling to provide basic services to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians since the October 7 Israel-Hamas conflict which has prompted more than two-thirds of the Gaza population 'of approximately 2.3 million' to flee their homes.
Earlier, on November 19, India had delivered 32 tonnes of 'humanitarian assistance to the people of Palestine' via the El-Arish Airport in Egypt. Since 2018, India has given USD 27.5 million to UNRWA.
It may be recalled that during an Extraordinary Virtual Ministerial Pledging Conference for UNRWA held on June 23, 2020, India announced that it would contribute USD 10 million to UNRWA over the next two years.
Prior to the war in Gaza, UNRWA was already facing an increased demand for services resulting from a growth in the number of registered Palestine refugees, the extent of their vulnerability and their deepening poverty. The agency is mandated to provide assistance and protection to some 5.6 million Palestine refugees registered with it across its five fields of operation.
India has also made a strong appeal to other traditional donors of UNRWA to consider enhancing their contributions as well as to non-donor member states to consider contributing to the agency in solidarity with the Palestine refugees.