The head of the UN agency that helps 5.3 million Palestinian refugees has urged donors who filled a USD 446 million hole in its budget last year after the Trump administration drastically cut the US contribution to be equally generous this year.
"Last year we had an extraordinary crisis and an out of the ordinary response," Pierre Krahenbuhl said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday.
"Our humble request to all the donors is: Please keep your funding levels at the same level as 2018."
US President Donald Trump said in January 2018 that the Palestinians must return to peace talks to receive US aid money a comment that raised alarm from leaders of 21 international humanitarian groups, who protested that the administration's link between aid and political objectives was "dangerous."
"If you take Gaza right now ... it's continuously at the razor's edge," Krahenbuhl said, stressing that any shift in humanitarian assistance or conditions that people live in "can trigger the need for justification, or the excuse ... to go back to war."
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