By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans to announcetens of millions of dollars in new aid for the West Bank andGaza next week to ease the humanitarian crisis in thePalestinian territories, U.S. officials said on Friday.
The funds will be channelled through the United NationsRelief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, which handlesU.S. and other aid for food, health, education and other areas,said U.S. officials, who would not give an exact figure as theannouncement will be made on a trip to the region next week.
A large chunk of the funding will go to Gaza, where aneconomic blockade has led to a worsening humanitarian crisis,culminating in hundreds of thousands of people crossing overinto Egypt last month after the border was breached.
"The timing is right," said Samuel Witten, acting assistantsecretary of state for the bureau of population, refugees andmigration. "We are acutely aware of the challenges facing thepeople of Gaza and these contributions that we are making are aresponse to that," he told Reuters.
Witten declined to provide details of the amount the UnitedStates plans to announce, but made it clear the funds would besubject to strict U.S. oversight regarding aid to thePalestinians.
The Islamist group Hamas, which Washington brands aterrorist organization, is in charge of the Gaza Strip andcontrols are in place to ensure no U.S. funds are channelleddirectly to Hamas, he said.
In fiscal year 2007, the Bush administration gave about$154 million (78.3 million pounds) to UNRWA to supportPalestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria andLebanon.
Separately it has also put about $86 million over the lastyear into reforming security forces loyal to pro-WesternPresident Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah movement dominates theWest Bank.
BOOST TO ABBAS
One goal of the new U.S. humanitarian aid is to boostAbbas' standing among Palestinians.
Abbas and his government have complained loudly in recentweeks that not enough is being done by the internationalcommunity to improve the situation on the ground and Israel isnot easing military checkpoints and other restrictions aspromised in peace talks brokered by the United States.
The United States hopes to get a peace treaty between Abbasand Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert by the end of the Bushadministration's term in January, 2009.
But talks so far between both sides have been going at aslow pace, with uncertainty over Gaza, security concerns andother thorny issues clouding the discussions that areultimately aimed at creating a Palestinian state.
When Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was inWashington last week he complained vociferously that Israel wasnot doing enough to improve the situation on the ground andthat the pace of negotiations needed to quicken.
A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition that he wasnot named, said he hoped the new U.S. aid for the West Bank andGaza would help the Palestinian Authority.
"There is a battle here for public opinion," he said.
He said the United States was acutely aware of the problemof rockets being fired constantly from Gaza into Israeliterritory, but he urged the Israelis to "lighten up a little"and start easing some restrictions.
While he understood Israeli arguments over retainingcheckpoints to prevent attacks on the Jewish state, he saidFayyad was suggesting "improving" their functioning rather thanremoving them entirely.
"They need to work out a balance here," added the official.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be in theregion early next month to try and push along the peace talksand help find solutions to security problems on the ground.
(Editing by Vicki Allen)
