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Dubai: Several appeals have been made and an acute humanitarian crisis is staring Palestinians in the face, but no Arab country has, till now, joined the United Nation's World Food Programme donation list, a UN official told Gulf News yesterday. Mia Turner, Regional Public Information Officer of World Food Programme (WFP), said until now, there are no Arab donors on the list, which includes the European Commission with a donation of $13.9 million (about Dh51 million), the United States with $7.9 million (about Dh29 million), Japan with $1.4 million (about Dh5.1 million), France with $1.2 million (about Dh4.4 million), Norway with $450,000 (about Dh1.65 million), Austria with $300,000 (about Dh1.1 million), Switzerland with $250,000 (about Dh917,500) and Italy with $70,000 (about Dh256,900).
"The Palestinian economy and people are facing an acute problem as a result of the Israeli security measures blocking entry into Gaza for over 50 per cent of the time since the beginning of the year, and with closures in the West Bank as well as restrictions on the movement of goods and people, the economy has suffered greatly," said Mia. She explained that after the current ban on funding the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), 150,000 PNA employees and families have not been paid since March. Pensioners and others who receive cash support are also in dire straits at a time where Gaza and the West Bank suffer from a high unemployment rate. "WFP is working hard to assist 160,000 people in Gaza and 430,000 in the West Bank but in addition to an access problem, there is also not enough money. WFP received only 33 per cent of the required $81 million (about Dh297.5 million) for this operation," said Mia. She said fund crunch has become a huge constraint. "The humanitarian agency has no money beyond July to fund its current $81 million operation," said Mia.
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