Kuwait keen on supporting UNRWA activities
‘State donated to agency $162m since 1949’
NEW YORK, Nov 7, (KUNA): The State of Kuwait is always keen on supporting the activities of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), donating a sum of $162 million since the agency’s establishment in 1949, said a Kuwaiti diplomat Tuesday.
During a meeting focusing on UNRWA activists, held within the 72nd UN General Assembly, First secretary at the Kuwaiti permanent delegation to the UN’s headquarters in New York, Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said Kuwait was keen on supporting the agency’s mission.
In 2015, Kuwait donated a sum of $15 million to cover the expenses of 500,000 Palestinian studying at UNRWA-operated schools, said the diplomat.
Kuwait had provided $50 million between 2013 and 2015 during the Syria donors’ conference to help Palestinians seeking refuge in the fellow Arab country, said Sheikh Jarrah, adding that a sum of $34 million was provided to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli aggression on UNRWA schools.
He indicated that Kuwait had provided $200 million in 2014 to help in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, which also suffered from another Israeli attack.
In December 1949, UNRWA was created as a relief and human development agency, which supports more than 5 million registered Palestinian refugees, and their descendants. The refugees were expelled from their homes during the 1948 Palestine war and the 1967 Six-Day war.