Poland donates $2 million to UN agencies for humanitarian aid in Gaza

Poland has announced that it will give $2 million to UN agencies providing aid in Gaza amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis there.

Half of the amount will be donated to the World Food Programme (WFP) and the other half will be donated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which supports healthcare, education and other forms of humanitarian aid.

The decision, which was announced by Poland’s foreign ministry, comes after an independent review commissioned by the UN announced earlier this week that Israel has not provided evidence that thousands of UNRWA staff were members of terror groups.

As a result, the EU called on international donors to resume funding to the agency, which many western countries suspended earlier this.

“In view of the dire humanitarian and food situation of the civilian population in Gaza and the very difficult conditions for the delivery of aid, [Poland] has decided to donate $1 million to WFP and $1 million to UNRWA,” said the foreign ministry in a statement on Wednesday.

The Polish donation to the WFP came as a response to the organisation’s call for $760 million in support that it needs to conduct humanitarian operations in Gaza until the end of 2024, the ministry said.

Warsaw also noted that the contribution to UNRWA is “a continuation of Poland’s existing commitment to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria”.

“Poland has been continuously supporting Palestine under its development cooperation programme since 2007,” the foreign ministry noted, adding that humanitarian assistance has substantially increased since Israel began military action in Gaza in response to Hamas’s attack of 7 October 2023.

Tensions between Poland and Israel rose earlier this month after a Polish aid worker was among those killed in an Israeli strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy in Gaza.

As well as the incident itself, Polish leaders criticised the response of Israeli ambassador Yakov Livne, who initially refused to apologise for the strike and accused some Polish politicians of antisemitism. Subsequently, Livne was summoned to the Polish foreign ministry, where he delivered an apology.

However, Poland has also made clear its support for Israel’s right to defend itself, including following Iran’s recent mass drone and missile strike on Israeli territory.

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Main image credit: Ali Jadallah / WFP

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.