Palestinian territories – Additional emergency humanitarian aid deployed by France (19 November 2023)

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To respond to the humanitarian emergency in Gaza, the international humanitarian conference held on 9 November 2023 on President Macron’s initiative released €1 billion in contributions from the participants. France played its full part in this, announcing that it would increase to €100 million its contribution in humanitarian aid to the Gazan people [provided] since the outset of the crisis. The conference forged a consensus based on the need for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce, leading to a ceasefire.

The €100 million of humanitarian assistance deployed by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs is broken down as follows: €77 million to support the work of the UN agencies, including €54 million to UNRWA for its emergency response in the sectors of food (water and food supply and financial assistance), shelter, healthcare and protection, particularly for women and children, and the payment of UNRWA staff salaries, as well as €13 million for the World Food Programme (WFP) to distribute emergency aid; €6 million via the ICRC for its emergency response in the sectors of food (water, food and financial assistance), shelter, healthcare and protection; €17 million for French and international partner NGOs – €15 million through the Crisis and Support Centre and €2 million through bilateral and European operations for access to basic services (shelter, healthcare, water-sanitation-hygiene and food security).

More than 100 tonnes of humanitarian aid has already been shipped by air to meet Gazan civilians’ needs for emergency healthcare, food and energy aid, through the Egyptian Red Crescent.

Three French humanitarian flights shipped emergency medical kits made up of a batch of medicines and hospital equipment aimed at strengthening emergency facilities and capable of treating up to 500 seriously injured people; 58 trunks of medicine supplied by the Association Tulipe and the NGO Première Urgence Internationale, with each trunk enabling 500 patients to be cared for (paediatrics, emergency cases and general practice); 18 emergency ventilators; 1,000 solar lamps and about 10 generators provided by the NGO Electriciens sans frontières; 336 tents, each providing shelter for one family; 28 tonnes of food supplements and 70,000 water treatment tablets provided by the company Nutriset.

Thirty-three tonnes of nutritional supplements provided by the company Nutriset were also delivered via a flight made as part of the humanitarian air bridge to Egypt established by the European Union. Further humanitarian aid delivery operations via this EU air bridge will follow in the coming days.

On 20 November, France is organizing a further emergency humanitarian cargo delivery for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The 11-tonne cargo includes medicines, equipment and emergency medical supplies put together by professionals in French hospitals and aimed at reinforcing emergency facilities, enabling the treatment of up to 1,000 seriously injured people and equivalent to two Mobile Medical Units (MMUs). It was designed to address the needs reported to us by the humanitarian bodies on the ground, with whom we in Paris, Jerusalem and Cairo are in constant touch.

Put in place by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs’ Crisis and Support Centre, it will be transported in a military place made available by the Ministry for the Armed Forces from Orléans to Egypt, where it will be handed over to the Egyptian Red Crescent, responsible for delivering it to Gaza.

We are in contact with our regional partners, particularly the Egyptians and Jordanians, to increase our medical and health assistance and help take care of the wounded. Regarding those wounded or sick children in Gaza who need urgent treatment, France is mobilizing all the resources at its disposal, particularly aerial resources, to ensure they can be treated, if useful and necessary, in France, where arrangements are being made to take in up to 50 patients in our hospitals.

We continue to call for compliance with international humanitarian law, the protection of humanitarian staff, and the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure. We are continuing our efforts with our partners to establish facilitation and support initiatives, particularly for deploying humanitarian aid and strengthening the medical assistance operation.

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