Jordan was one of the first countries to provide generous financial aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), enabling it to address the “catastrophic crisis in Gaza,” said Tamara Rifai, the agency’s spokesperson. In a press statement to the Jordan News Agency (Petra) on Sunday, Rifai described the conditions in the Gaza Strip as “very bad,” with the agency being unable to meet the enormous needs of Palestinians, especially in light of the scarcity of resources such as water, food, and relief materials. There are more than half a million people in the agency’s schools and facilities in the Gaza Strip, but it is unable to provide for their needs, she noted, calling for the urgent opening of a safe corridor through which relief, medical, food, and fuel needed to operate the desalination plant can enter. The agency had announced an urgent need for $104 million to enable its multi-sectoral humanitarian response in Gaza for ninety days, explaining that these funds will cover the urgent food, non-food, health, shelter and protection needs of up to 250,000 people seeking safety in UNRWA shelters throughout the Gaza Strip, in addition to 250,000 refugees from Palestine. Last Thursday, His Majesty King Abdullah II directed the government to provide aid to the UNRWA so that it can continue providing its relief services as well as food, medicine, and humanitarian needs to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, in light of the serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation and the increase of these needs as a result of the escalation and war on Gaza. Subsequently, the government allocated three million Jordanian dinars to be transferred to the UNRWA immediately.
Source: Jordan News Agency