Islamic Development Bank grants $5 million to UN agency for Palestine refugees

The key United Nations agency assisting Palestine refugees announced today that it had received a pledge of $5 million from the Islamic Development Bank.

At a meeting in Jerusalem, Bank officials informed the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) that the money had been allocated from the Al-Aqsa Fund in a bid to support the Agency's emergency job creation programme, with special emphasis on rebuilding destroyed and shelled homes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Thanking the Bank for its generous contribution, Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said the funds would enable the Agency to address the urgent needs of refugees resulting from the continuing confrontations in the occupied territories and the consequent Israeli punitive restrictions on the movement of goods and Palestinian people.

Mr. Hansen pointed out that the Bank's contribution, along with the generous support of UNRWA's major donors, demonstrated the international community's trust in the Agency's ability to respond to an emergency situation.

UNRWA, which has been operating for over 50 years, is the main provider of basic services - education, health, relief and social services - to over 3.7 million registered Palestine refugees in the Middle East.