Blinken announces US aid to Gaza, says Hamas won't benefit
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said the US will move to reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem, which served as a de facto American embassy for the Palestinians before it was shuttered by the prior administration.
The United States will provide tens of millions of dollars in assistance to the Palestinians and move forward with plans to reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Tuesday in the wake of a fragile cease-fire that halted the region's deadliest fighting in years.
“This relief is urgent. We have to respond to the profound need to help people at this moment,” Blinken said in remarks alongside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, adding that the United States will work to "promote economic stability and progress in the West Bank and Gaza."
America’s top diplomat was in the West Bank city of Ramallah as part of a Middle East tour aimed at bolstering the Egypt-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas and marshaling international support for rebuilding the impoverished Gaza Strip.
As part of that effort, the Biden administration will ask Congress for $75 million in economic and development assistance for the Palestinians in 2021. Blinken also announced the United States would provide $5.5 million in immediate disaster aid for Gaza and $32 million for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA. Combined with prior contributions, assistance for Palestinians during the first four months of the Biden administration totals more than $360 million, Blinken said.
