The government of India has released $2.5 million of the promised $5 million for the year 2024-25 to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The fund will be used to provide education, health care, and other services to Palestinian refugees.

Indian Assistance to the Palestinian People

According to the government of India, it has provided $35 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) until 2023-24. The money is being used to provide education, health care, and other services to Palestinian refugees.

The government of India has also pledged to provide medicines to the UNRWA at the recent UNRWA Pledging Conference held in New York, the United States of America.

Who are Palestinian Refugees?

Palestinian refugees are those persons and their descendants who lost their homes and were exiled from Palestine during the 1948 conflict.

After the Second World War, the United Nations adopted a resolution on 29 November 1947 to divide Palestine State in West Asia into two sovereign countries of Israel and Palestine. At that time, people living in Palestine, which was under the control of the British, were predominantly Muslim Arabs.

A new state of Israel was to be created, which would be the homeland of the Jewish people.

The Arabs opposed the creation of Israel and the division of Palestine.

War erupted after Israel declared its independence on 14 May 1948.

The Palestinian Arabs, supported by the neighbouring Arab countries, attacked Israel but were defeated.

Israel captured around 77 per cent of the territory of the area earmarked for a Palestinian state. Over half of the Arab Palestinian population was expelled or fled from the area.

In the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Israel again defeated the Arab forces and captured the Gaza Strip of Egypt and the West Bank of Jordan, which had a sizable Palestinian population. Later, Israel annexed these areas, leading to another half million Palestinians becoming refugees.

For details about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, click here.

UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

The United Nations set up the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in 1949 to help the Palestinian refugees.

It is funded entirely by voluntary contributions of the United Nations member countries.

It provides basic services -education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, protection and microfinance, to the registered Palestinian refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Headquarters: Amman (Jordan) and Gaza Strip