DUBAI: The UAE announced on Saturday a $50 million donation to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a relief and human development agency supporting the Palestinian people.
The donation will be used to provide health services to Palestinian refugees, and to implement educational programs for the youth – which the UAE says is its top priority, state news agency WAM reported.
The UAE’s foreign ministry says it acknowledges the “hard work” of the agency in catering to more than five million Palestinians living in dire humanitarian conditions, in spite of its financial challenges.
The US last year cut its contributions to the UNRWA, describing the organization as “irredeemably flawed,” the BBC reported, which the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas immediately denounced.
Over the last two years, the UAE provided more than US$364 million to support Palestinians, including $50 million to support UNRWA’s education program in 2018, and $2 million to provide fuel to stations supplying power to hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
