On Wednesday, the government of Ireland announced an immediate humanitarian aid package of 13 million euros ($13.7 million) to the Palestinians while calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas clash.
The funds would almost double Ireland’s aid budget to UN agencies helping Palestinians, the Irish government said, which was initially set at a total of 16 million euros for this year.
“This is a crisis that simply cannot wait,” the foreign minister Michael Martin said in a statement while calling on the EU “to step up now to provide whatever support they can”.
Reiterating a call by Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Martin also called for the opening of a humanitarian corridor from Egypt to the Gaza Strip — which Israel announced on Wednesday that it would allow.
Gazans have been encountering threatening shortages as the territory was effectively sealed off in the wake of the October 7 invasions by the Palestinian militants Hamas on Israeli communities and military posts.
Those attacks and the fight they flared have claimed around 1,400 lives in Israel and 3,478 in Gaza, according to officials on each side.
