The new financial package of humanitarian aid released by the European Union in favour of over a million “vulnerable” Palestinians resident in the occupied territories and in Lebanon amounts to 28.3 million euros. The funds administered by the EU humanitarian office ECHO will be allocated to the provision of water and food, activities in schools, the improvement of medical and sanitary services, the creation of new jobs, psychological and social support, and relief to the very poor. According to the European Commissioner for development Louis Michel, in spite of the decision of international donors to limit direct humanitarian aid in the form of subsidies in response to a growth of structural interventions capable of generating local development, the level of unprecedented poverty and unemployment reached in the Palestinian territories obliges the Union to “respond to the urgent needs of the population”. The new aid package confirms the leading role played by the EU in providing humanitarian aid to the Region. For further information, consult the website http://europa.eu.int/comm/echo/index_fr.htm
