<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, attended this Monday, in the Cargo Centre of Barajas Airport (Madrid), the shipment of twelve tons of medical and sanitary material destined for the Gaza Strip.</strong></h4> The material sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) will serve to “alleviate the terrible humanitarian situation” in the Strip, Albares declared to the press. The shipment is valued at a total cost of 265,000 euros and consists of 60 pallets and 12 tons of sanitary material that will help 600 families and some 3,000 people, mostly women and children, “to recover the pulse of something resembling a normal life”, he added. According to Albares, Spain has been sending aid to Gaza “from the very beginning” through the AECID. This new aid package will first arrive in Jordan, where the Jordanian Red Crescent and the International Federation of the Red Cross will be responsible for introducing it into Gaza “through their counterparts in the Strip”, specifically the Palestinian Red Crescent, the minister specified. According to the AECID, the humanitarian aid sent this Monday is part of the ceasefire of January 19 between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which establishes a first phase of six weeks to increase the entry of humanitarian aid into the territory. <h5><strong>The situation in Gaza and Spanish cooperation</strong></h5> Since the beginning of the conflict in October 2023, AECID recalled, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has become “catastrophic”, with 1.9 million internally displaced people, 46% of the population affected by famine, 87% of homes damaged or destroyed, 70% of agricultural land devastated and more than 658,000 students without access to formal education, among other effects. In addition, according to the World Food Programme, more than 50% of the population in need of food aid did not receive any type of assistance between October and December 2024. The average waiting time for humanitarian material at the Kerem Shalom crossing was, at the end of the year, 74 days. The lack of fuel and the disconnection of the electricity grid also seriously affect the water and sanitation system (WASH), with an increase in cases of polio, hepatitis A, dysentery and other infections, especially in northern Gaza. In addition, at least 240 United Nations humanitarian workers have died since 2023 and UN trucks have been subject to continuous attacks by armed groups, with an average of 51 trucks looted per day. In these circumstances, according to AECID, Spain's official humanitarian and development cooperation aid to Palestine, especially to Gaza, exceeded 50 million euros in 2023 (25,750,000 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and 25,570,641 from AECID). In 2024, AECID and MAEC's programming for Palestine exceeded 41.4 million euros (37.4 million from AECID and four million from the Ministry, with funds from the Secretary of State for Foreign and Global Affairs) and the Agency's forecast for 2025 is to maintain the level of contributions from 2024. On January 15, during his trip to Beirut, the minister announced an initial contribution of 24 million euros in humanitarian aid to Gaza.
