The Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced an additional $100 million in funding to support UN, Red Cross and Red Crescent and NGO partners in delivering international assistance to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Today's announcement comes as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to intensify and conditions in the West Bank deteriorate amid Israeli settlement expansion and rising extremist settler violence.
This funding brings Canada's total contributions to international assistance efforts in Palestine to more than $500 million and will help provide emergency medical assistance, food and nutrition, water, sanitation, shelter and protection services while also supporting peace and stabilization initiatives.
Canada calls on Israel to urgently allow the safe, rapid and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance, the protection of civilians, including humanitarian workers, and full respect for international humanitarian law.
Funding announced today reflects Canada's broader effort to address the crises in Gaza and the West Bank. It also underscores Canada's support for peacebuilding efforts to advance the necessary conditions for a lasting peace in support of a two-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace, security and dignity. This week, Canada imposed sanctions against individuals and entities linked to extremist settler violence in the West Bank and joined Australia and the United Kingdom in launching the International Peace Fund for Israelis and Palestinians to support peacebuilding efforts. We continue to call for the disarmament of Hamas, for all parties to uphold their obligations under international law and for the immediate and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid.
