The United Nations on Monday urged donor states to provide $350 million in aid for the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 2019, saying it needed more but had to be "realistic" following US cuts.
The UN said the appeal, down from $539 million in 2018, was due to a lack of available donor funds across the globe, according to AFP.
It aims to support 1.4 million Palestinian Arabs through more than 200 projects.
The United States announced recently that it will cut almost all of its aid to the PA, having previously provided around $500 million a year through different mechanisms, including the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees” UNRWA for which it cut off aid in August.
Monday’s appeal for funds, called the Humanitarian Response Plan and done in conjunction with Palestinian authorities, received in the past $100 million in US funding.
Jamie McGoldrick, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said due to a lack of donors the UN had to be more "realistic" when asking for funds.
"We have taken this humanitarian response plan to the most focused and prioritized it could possibly be," he was quoted as having said at the launch of the appeal in Ramallah.
The majority of the funds will go to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, according to AFP.
The PA has repeatedly asked for foreign donations in recent years, claiming it is on the verge of collapse due to a worsening financial crisis.
At the same time, while blaming Israel for the PA’s financial woes, its chairman Mahmoud Abbas continues to spend six percent of the PA’s annual budget to pay $4.5 million a month to jailed terrorists and another $6.5 million to their families.
According to AFP, last year the UN appeal received only $220 million of the funds requested.