New Zealand makes fresh aid pledge to Palestinians
New Zealand has announced a fresh package of humanitarian support for Palestinians but is side-stepping the controversy-stricken United Nations Relief and Works Agency to deliver it.
Winston Peters
On Friday, Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced $NZ5 million ($A4.7 million) in aid.
The aid will be evenly distributed between two other UN agencies, the World Food Programme and UNICEF.
“With 2.2 million people on the brink of famine in Gaza, the work of the World Food Programme is more important than ever,” Mr Peters said.
“The $2.5 million to UNICEF will help support women, children and babies, who are especially vulnerable in Gaza.”
Mr Peters visited Melbourne on Thursday as part of the Australia-New Zealand defence and foreign ministers meeting, where he heard from his Australian counterpart Penny Wong on her recent travel through the Middle East.
“We have reports from the UN that 400,000 Palestinians in Gaza are actually starving and a million are at risk of starvation,” Ms Wong said at a joint press conference.
“An estimated 1.7 million people in Gaza are internally displaced and there are increasingly few safe places for Palestinians to go.”
The NZ First leader made the funding decision after hearing from Ms Wong.
It is the first offering of humanitarian support since the right-leaning coalition government took office in November.
Previous funding of $NZ10 million ($A9.3 million) was offered by the Labour government while it was in caretaker mode, the last of which was pledged on November 18.
The aid comes as international donors pause contributions to the UN body which supports Palestinian refugees, the UNRWA, after allegations several of its employees assisted with Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
Mr Peters said the government had not halted payments to the UNRWA – which receives $NZ1 million ($A930,000) annually from New Zealand – but would wait on an internal probe into the matter.
AAP
