The Obama administration has announced emergency humanitarian aid worth $20.3 million for urgent relief efforts in the Gaza Strip, where nearly 1,300 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed in the three-week-long Israeli offensive.
The assistance is part of the Emergency Refugee and Migration Fund, White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs said. The announcement of the relief assistance, which would address the critical post-conflict humanitarian needs in Gaza, came on Friday as the US' Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, continued to tour the region.
With this, the total humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees has increased to $120 million this year, including $60 million in Gaza.
Later, the State department said of the $20.3 million, $13.5 million will go to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, $6 million to the
International Committee of the Red Cross, and $800,000 to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
These organisations are distributing emergency food assistance, providing medical aid and temporary shelter, creating temporary employment, and restoring access to
electricity and potable water to the people of Gaza.
In addition to the latest announcement, the US so far has provided more than $3.7 million for emergency assistance to Gaza.
Expressing its support for humanitarian actors responding to emergency needs in Gaza, the US urged other countries to provide urgently needed funding for humanitarian relief work.
