New Delhi: India announced that it has provided US $ 2.5 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East or the UNRWA for the welfare of Palestinian refugees.The Representative Office of India to the state of Palestine, at Ramallah, posted on X that this is the second tranche of the same amount, and goes towards fulfilling India’s annual promise of US $ 5 million for Palestinian refugees. The first was released in November.The amount is to “support the Agency’s core programmes and services, including education, healthcare, relief and social services provided to Palestinian refugees” and was handed over to the chargée d’affaires, Elizabeth Rodrigues.Millions of Palestinian refugees live in 58 recognised Palestine refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. With Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip, tens of thousands have died or been made refugees anew.Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has announced that its teams have undertaken high-risk missions to deliver supplies, with partners, to hospitals in Northern and Southern Gaza witnessing intense hostilities in their vicinity, high patient loads and overcrowding caused by people displaced by the conflict seeking refuge.India initially begun with a strong backing of Israel, after the attack by Hamas, on October 7. Gradually, as the toll in Gaza rose, India developed a nuanced stance on the violence.In late October, India abstained in the UN General Assembly vote on a resolution that called for an immediate humanitarian truce in the Israel-Hamas conflict.Two months later, in the middle of December, India voted in favour of a new resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly by an even larger majority that called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.Calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, the resolution demanded an “unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access”.
