The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)and the European Union (EU) signed on Monday an agreement providing 5.5 million euros in support of the UNRWA's health care program in the Gaza Strip.

The new funds represent a crucial response to the agency's financial crisis, and will enable it to maintain the current moderate level of its health care activities and guarantee measures to boost the quality of its health care services, according to a statement by the international organization.

The UNRWA's commissioner general, Ms. Karen Abu Zayd, and the European Union (EU) representative to UNRWA, Mr. Christian Berger, signed the agreement at a UN-run clinic in Gaza City.

This agreement comes as a follow-up to last week's agreement, which was also signed between the two parties to provide 10 million euros for the UNRWA in the war-torn territory.

According to Ms. Karen Abu Zayd, the new agreement was crucial, given the financial shortfall the agency suffering from, "the deficit will affect our basic education and health services for the whole region."

"Both health and education are among the most important services UNRWA is providing for Palestinians," said Mr. Berger.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2009)