Illustration of assistance for Palestine. (REUTERS / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

Undisbursed Funds, Starvation is Threatening People in Gaza

Gaza, Palestine - It is reported that around 60 million USD aid budget (around 867.2 billion Rupiah) has not been  fulfilled and more than one million residents of the Gaza Lane, Palestine are threatened with hunger next month. President Donald Trump has stopped giving assistance to Gaza, with the reasons to pressure the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups to agree to negotiate for Palestinian peace is also the cause of this undisbursed funds.

In order to prevent the starvation from happening, The United Nations Relief and Volunteer Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) is now persuading the European Union, a number of countries in the Gulf region, China and Russia to want to provide the funds in the expected amount for Gaza.

Schmale, the UNRWA Operational Director in the Gaza Lane stated that the food crisis in the Gaza Lane was also worsen by the high unemployment rate, which reached 53 percent. Moreover, Israel has implemented a total blockade of land, sea and air to the Gaza Strip Lane 2007 in order to make it difficult for Hamas to move and give some assistance.

He also stated that the European Union and its member countries, namely Britain, Germany and Sweden were the biggest contributors to give assistance to Gaza Lane. However, the European Union was less involved in Palestinian and Israeli peace efforts, making the it's harder to make a move.

In the other hand, Qatar has allocated funds of 48 million USD or 6.8 trillion Rupiah to help the Palestinian government improve education, health services, and humanitarian emergency assistance, as one of Palestine's main fund donors for the past few years.

Source: https://www.cnnindonesia.com/internasional/20190516112021-120-395349/warga-gaza-terancam-kelaparan-jika-dana-bantuan-tak-terpenuhi