UN increases aid estimate for Palestine

Occupied Jerusalem: The United Nations raised its estimate of the aid needed to avert a humanitarian disaster for the Palestinian population of Gaza and the West Bank by 80 per cent.

Taking the unprecedented step of revising their appeal halfway through the financial year, UN agencies said they needed a record Dh1,415 million for 2006 rather than Dh794 million previously requested.

The appeal put the UN at odds with the Israel, which refuses to admit that the 3.5 million people in the occupied territories are suffering unduly. Israeli premier Ehud Olmert dismissed claims of a humanitarian crisis as "total propaganda".

The UN's chief aid-coordinator said the body had "been compelled to revise [its] original appeal in the face of desperate need".