US to announce over $300 million in aid for Palestinians in Gaza, West Bank

By Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday will announce nearly $336 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, according to a U.S. Agency for International Development statement seen by Reuters.

The funding, first reported by Reuters, will enable USAID's partners to continue to provide humanitarian aid, including food assistance, healthcare, nutrition and other services, according to the statement.

The funding will also support emergency shelter assistance to displaced Gazans ahead of winter, the statement said.

"Over the last year, this conflict has cost the lives of innocent Palestinians and Israelis and has left Gaza and the West Bank in a state of humanitarian crisis and dire humanitarian need," the statement said.

"The United States continues to call on all parties to agree to a ceasefire deal and an immediate release of hostages, and to allow for the immediate scale-up of humanitarian aid moving into and throughout Gaza."

The war began last Oct. 7 when Hamas gunmen stormed Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel's military has leveled swaths of the besieged Palestinian enclave, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than 41,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying unsuccessfully to broker a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas.

A USAID spokesperson said that agency partners have continued to reach people in Gaza with aid, but added that "barriers to access and insecurity prevent the necessary scaling of assistance to adequately meet the needs of the 2.3 million people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in Gaza."

The agency is continuing to work with partners to resolve issues impacting the ability for assistance to reach communities in need, the spokesperson said.

The U.N. has long complained of obstacles to getting aid into Gaza during the war and distributing it amid "total lawlessness" in the besieged enclave. Nearly 300 humanitarian aid workers, more than two-thirds of them U.N. staff, have been killed.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; editing by Jonathan Oatis)