LISBON: Portugal on Thursday announced to give 10 million euros to the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA to provide humanitarian aid, food and medicine to Palestinians.
Acting Cabinet Affairs Minister Mariana Vieira da Silva announced the aid after a cabinet meeting. A Foreign Ministry official said the new additional aid had not been allocated in the state budget for 2024.
The United States, UNRWA’s main donor, and several other nations have halted their funding to the agency since January after Israel accused 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the October 7 attacks.
Portugal, which did not stop its assistance, contributed four million euros directly to UNRWA in 2023, and in February this year it committed one million euros in extra aid to the UN agency.
Caretaker Prime Minister Antonio Costa said he would inform the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has repeatedly stressed for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, about the 10-million-euro aid.
Costa told journalists, ahead of a European Council meeting in Brussels that they are all unanimous in denouncing the attack that took place on October 7 against Israel, but the EU should also be united in condemning the way Israel is exercising its right to defend itself through a military operation in Gaza.
