OSLO (Reuters) – The international community should continue to provide financial aid to the Palestinian people and institutions, Norway’s Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt told Reuters on Wednesday.
“As chair of the international donor group (to the Palestinians) AHLC, Norway encourages the international community to continue its financial assistance to the Palestinian people,” Huitfeldt said in a statement.
Several countries, including Sweden and Denmark, have said they will halt, or are considering whether to halt, aid to Palestinian territories following the surprise attack by Hamas militants on Israel over the weekend.
But the situation in the area will only deteriorate if aid is suspended, the Norwegian foreign minister said.
“Humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza should be a key priority,” she added.
Several EU countries have also come out in favour of maintaining aid to the Palestinians, forcing the EU to backtrack on an announcement to suspend aid earlier this week.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Terje Solsvik and Christina Fincher)
