On Thursday 27 September, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini announced another €40 million in support from the EU to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
During the meeting organised in New York to relaunch UNRWA's financing following the freeze on US funding, the international community promised $122 million in new financing, according to Jordan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi.
This financing is "crucial, especially for schools and hospitals in Gaza, but also in Lebanon, in Jordan, in Syria, to avoid adding problems to those already existing", Mogherini said. With this new assistance, the European Commission's overall contribution to UNRWA's activities in 2018 amounts to €146 million.
Beyond the funds, Mogherini reiterated the EU's support for a two-state solution. "We have to avoid that this perspective fades away, or rather that it is dismantled, piece by piece", she said, adding that there was no alternative. In the face of those who believe that the creation of one state for all those who are living on the territory could be a solution, she said that she gathered "this would not be a solution acceptable for the Palestinians nor the Israelis". (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)