US Provides Additional $6Mln in Humanitarian Aid for Syrian Palestinians

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The State Department said the funds will be used to provide urgent aid and reinforce support for those trapped in Yarmouk, Palestinian refugees and Syrian civilians currently aided by UNRWA.

“In response to the devastating crisis in Yarmouk, Ambassador Samantha Power, the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, announced on April 24 that the United States is providing an additional $6 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA),” the State Department said on Monday.

Earlier in April 2015, Islamic State fighters invaded Yarmouk, and the Syrian military responded by shelling the areas to repel the terrorist group. As a result of the fighting, an undetermined number of people has died and at least 4,000 people have fled to surrounding areas, according to the Palestinian Network of Civil Society in Syria.

Some 18,000 civilians remain in Yarmouk, 3,500 of whom are children, and the UN Security council has expressed grave concern for the possibility a massacre of Palestinians and others as the violence intensifies.

In areas under Islamic State control, the civilians have experienced severe restrictions on food, medicine, clean water and electricity.

The US has committed $3.7 billion in humanitarian assistance to address the needs of the Syrian people since 2011, according to the State Department.