EU reverses announcement that it was ‘immediately’ suspending Palestinian aid

The European Union late on Monday reversed an earlier announcement by an EU commissioner that the bloc was “immediately” suspending aid for Palestinian authorities.

Instead it said it would urgently review such assistance in the wake of the attacks on Israel by Hamas.

“There will be no suspension of payments” at the moment, a European Commission statement said late on Monday, five hours after EU commissioner Oliver Varhelyi had said that all payments from the development programme for Palestinians would be “immediately suspended. All projects put under review. All new budget proposals … postponed until further notice”.

No immediate explanation for the reversal was given.

A full European Commission statement always trumps a statement from an EU commissioner, but the reversal on a 691 million-euro (£597 million) programme came at a time of extreme geopolitical sensitivities.

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.