A Palestinian boy rides a bicycle on a street in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis amid a lockdown, on April 3, 2021.
Yasser Qudih | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will restore U.S. humanitarian assistance and economic development for Palestinians through a series of multimillion-dollar packages.
The aid package includes $75 million in economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza, $10 million for peacebuilding programs through the U.S. Agency for International Development and $150 million in humanitarian assistance for the United Nation’s Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA.
At a State Department briefing on Wednesday, spokesman Ned Price told reporters that the United States had discussed the relief package with relevant allies and partners in the region.
“The United States is committed to advancing prosperity, security, and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians in tangible ways in the immediate term, which is important in its own right, but also as a means to advance towards a negotiated two-state solution,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in a statement.
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump cut nearly $300 million in annual funding for the U.N. agency supporting Palestinian refugees.
