U.S. Withholding Added $45 Million in Palestinian Aid, Sources Say
- State Department had promised the aid to UN assistance agency
- The money may be ‘paid out later on,’ spokeswoman says
A Palestinian woman looks on from her home in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Jan. 4, 2018.
Photographer: Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images
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The U.S. State Department is reneging on a pledge to contribute $45 million in food aid, health services and other relief it promised to deliver to Palestinian refugees by this month, adding to cutbacks announced earlier this week.
In a letter dated Dec. 17, State Department Comptroller Eric Hembree had told the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or Unrwa, that it would pay the money in response to a West Bank and Gaza emergency appeal “by or before early January 2018.”