US Set to Deliver $150M in Aid to Palestinians

The US promised today to transfer $150 million in aid to the economically ailing Palestinian Authority, marking the first installment of $550 million the US pledged at a donors' conference in December, Reuters reports. The contribution will be the largest single donation since the Authority was launched in 1994, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said.

The Western-backed Authority recently urged donors to make good on December pledges totaling $7.4 billion; Fayyad said today the US transfer "was coming to us at a time of great need." Also in the US pipeline is $148 million earmarked for the UN Relief and Works Agency, to provide services for Palestinian refugees, and another $200 million for development projects. (More Palestinian Authority stories.)