Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 12, 2003
EU offers humanitarian aid to Middle East
The European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the European Union, has adopted a decision to provide 13 million euros (about 15.86 million US dollars) in humanitarian aid for "vulnerable populations" in the Middle East.
The European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the European Union, has adopted a decision to provide 13 million euros (about 15.86 million US dollars) in humanitarian aid for "vulnerable populations" in the Middle East.
A press release issued Thursday by the EC said the aid program includes offering food, water, emergency health care and job opportunities to vulnerable Palestinians in the West Bank and GazaStrip.
The program also includes providing health care, water and sanitation services for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and healthservices to Iraqi refugees living in camps in Jordan and in the "no-man's land" between Jordan and Iraq.
"Decisive steps must be taken to reverse the sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza, which is making life increasingly intolerable for ordinary Palestinians," said European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Poul Nielson.
In 2002, the per capita food consumption in the Palestinian territories dropped to only 58 percent of what it was in 1998. In Gaza, chronic malnutrition in children under the age of 5 is widespread. Current daily water consumption in the West Bank is half the amount recommended by the World Health Organization.