On international aid and the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip

By Omar Shaban

• The value of the international financial pledges up to the 28th of August reached 280 million dollars, of which 200 million dollars have actually been executed. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is at the top of the contributing states with 80 million dollars, Australia with 14 million dollars, Germany with 13 million dollars, the United States of America with 12 million dollars, the Arab Emirates with 11 million dollars, Kuwait 10 million dollars. Most of this money was pumped into the accounts of the Palestinian National Authority to enable it to confront the crisis in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA requested 367 million dollars to confront the crisis and obtained 177 million dollars, that is a proportion of 48%

• In addition to the direct in-kind assistance and the services, such as receiving the wounded in the hospitals and other patterns of backing; likewise those cash and in-kind assistances that come from individuals or civil institutions abroad to individuals and civil institutions inside.

• Work must proceed as far as possible on documenting all the kinds of assistance presented, whether through the Palestinian Authority or directly to the international institutions, or those assistances that reach persons or institutions.

• There is no doubt that these assistances have a great role in confronting the repercussions of the aggression, especially those directed to the thousands of families that took refuge in the schools after the destruction of their houses. So they have all appreciation.. but their presenting of the service does not exempt them from the duty of disclosure and complete transparency.

• Financial and administrative transparency is not confined only to knowing what the institution or the government presents; rather it begins with presenting the value of the money received and the kinds of services presented to the beneficiaries and their cost, the way of awarding the bids, the way of choosing the intermediary bodies, the mechanism of distribution, and the proportion of the administrative costs the institution obtains to cover its administrative expenses.

Honouring the victims among our people's sons requires absolute transparency in all the stages of the intervention and from all the parties: the donor, the recipient, the intermediary, the beneficiary.