Brussels, 06/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - Responding to the worsening crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the European Commission has decided to grant EUR 7.5 million in emergency food aid for the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories from ECHO's budget (the EU's Humanitarian Aid Office) to provide food for 217,000 refugee families whose living conditions have been deteriorating since the beginning of the second Intifada in October 2000 and have worsened with the increase in tension following the 11 September 201 attacks on the United States, highlights the Commission in a press release. The new funding takes the 2001 total of ECHO humanitarian aid for the Occupied Territories to EUR 27.6 million.