U.S. Aid to Palestinians in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic
(March 25, August 24, 2021)
The U.S. Government is pleased to announce $15 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing these funds to address the most urgent, life-saving humanitarian needs in the West Bank and Gaza. With this assistance, USAID is supporting Catholic Relief Services’ COVID-19 response efforts in health care facilities and affected communities throughout the West Bank and Gaza. This assistance is also supporting emergency food assistance programming in communities facing food insecurity, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This small step in advancing the well-being of the Palestinian people is fully in keeping with American values.
Additionally, to date, the United States has provided an initial $2 billion contribution to Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, to support vaccination for people around the world through the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment. In mid-March, the Palestinian Authority received the first batch of AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX AMC. This is part of COVAX’s commitment to provide a total 168,000 AstraZeneca and 37,440 Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses for the West Bank and Gaza. Global cooperation is crucial to meet the threats of our time. President Biden is committed to working with our partners on COVID-19, a top national security priority.
We were pleased to provide 500,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine to help save Palestinian lives.
Sources: U.S. State Department, (March 25, 2021); @SecBlinken, (August 24, 2021).
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