A meeting was held Saturday between the Palestinian Prime Minister and the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs regarding Italy’s commitment to providing an additional 35 million euro aid package to Palestine.  The aid package seeks to fund  ‘Food for Gaza’ and the  UNRWA (The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees).

The aid package’s primary funding distribution is to ‘Food for Gaza.’ Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Tajani has committed 30 million euros to fund this program further. The previous aid packages allocated 20 million euros to ‘Food for Gaza.’ The Italian Government provided a press release announcing the project’s conception on March 11, iterating that they work in collaboration with the UN’s World Food Program (WFP), The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The organisation’s mission is ‘facilitating access to food aid, alleviating the suffering of the population and ensuring food security in the Gaza Strip.’ For the context of the reach of the funds, the WFP said they had assisted 1.5 million civilians by providing them with food in April alone. 

Tajani also committed 5 million euros to the UNRWA. However, per the press release, the funds will be apportioned per region. The separation was between the West Bank, and the group consisting of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Funds would be distributed in 2 million and 3 million euro portions, respectively.

Tajani stated, ‘Italy has decided to resume financing specific projects intended for assistance to Palestinian refugees, but only after rigorous controls that guarantee that not even a penny risks ending up supporting terrorism.’ 

The statement comes after Israel accused the UNRWA of being involved in the October 7 attacks by Hamas and complicit in Terrorism. This accusation resulted in a loss of nearly 450 million USD in funds for the humanitarian support group as countries such as the US temporarily ceased funding allocation. The UN conducted an internal review due to the allegations, with their summary press report stating that the UNRWA did and continues to have acceptable mechanisms of neutrality but will continue working towards improving these mechanisms. Numerous member states have begun reissuing their funding following the UN internal investigation’s findings.