11/4/2003
Commission provides further humanitarian aid for the Palestinian victims of the crisis

The European Commission is providing a further relief package worth €15 million to Palestinian victims of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. The aid will support provision of food, medicines, water and sanitation to meet the needs of the most vulnerable Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

The funds will be made available through the Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) which comes under the responsibility of Commissioner Poul Nielson. The relief package will be channelled through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the World Food Programme (WFP), Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This decision brings to nearly €100 million the amount allocated for the region since the outbreak of the second Intifada in September 2000.

Commenting on the decision, Commissioner Poul Nielson said: "The escalation of the crisis in the Palestinian Territories over the last thirty months has made the Commission 's humanitarian action as necessary as ever. The Commission remains committed to showing solidarity to those Palestinians experiencing increasing hardship. There has been a serious economic breakdown leading to a man-made, deep humanitarian crisis. We will continue to provide humanitarian support where it is most needed."

The living conditions of Palestinians have been stretched to breaking point. Unemployment stands at 50% and 60% of Palestinians live in poverty with international assistance as their primary means of survival. Half of the Palestinian households receive humanitarian assistance mostly in the form of food supplies, yet real per capita food consumption has dropped by 25-30%.

In the West Bank and Gaza Strip the present funding decision will support more than 550 000 people receiving emergency food from UNRWA, as well as food distribution to families who have been cut off from income-generating activities, malnourished children and pregnant/feeding mothers. It will also provide training and food-for-work to 5,000 farming families and support the ICRC's urban voucher programme
This aid package will also provide life-saving medicines at 71 primary healthcare facilities managed by UNRWA and providing services to 2.4 million Palestinian refugees in and outside refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. In the West Bank emergency medical supplies will be distributed to local and regional health facilities. The drug management system of the Palestinian Ministry of Health will be improved.

Since the start of the second Intifada the existing water problems in the region have been exacerbated. People increasingly rely on unsafe water sources, such as collection of rainfall or water from springs. Current daily water intake is half the amount recommended by the World Health Organisation. The new funds made available will support vulnerable groups in the Palestinian Territories and in Lebanon by helping to construct and rehabilitate springs, wells, public water storage and improve sanitation facilities.