Spain pledges extra 20 mln euros in aid to UNRWA

Spain will give the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA an additional 20 million euros ($21.88 million) in aid, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Thursday.

This will be on top of the 3.5 million euros the country has already pledged in February. The new funds are aimed at "supporting the organisation in its humanitarian work in Gaza and meeting the food, education and health needs of the nearly six million Palestinian refugees in the region," Albares said after meeting UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini in Madrid.

Several countries, including the United States and Britain, paused their funding to UNRWA after accusations by Israel that a dozen of its 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. ($1 = 0.9142 euros)