Since the outset of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process in 1993, Europe has been one of Palestine's main donors. This support, which has proved relatively stable since 2008, has averaged €1.2 billion a year across all member-states and the European Union (EU) itself, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Within this combined total, the EU share managed by Brussels amounts to €300 million per year.

Following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, this contribution is now being called into question, and the Commission is re-examining it to check whether it has financed the Islamist organization. Like the EU, Germany – which gives around €125 million a year – as well as Austria, Denmark and Sweden, have decided to temporarily suspend their contributions.

Nevertheless, as Josep Borrell, the head of European diplomacy, pointed out at the end of a meeting of foreign ministers on Tuesday, October 10, "the overwhelming majority of the Member States consider that we have to continue our support to the Palestinian Authority and the payments due should not be delayed in a moment in which this Authority is in a critical moment because the Palestinian people are also suffering." Humanitarian aid – €28 million in 2023 – he added, has not been affected by this review.

In detail, of the €300 million in aid, just under a third (€85-90 million) goes to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Some 300,000 children attend UNRWA schools in Gaza alone.

The rest of the funds transferred to Palestine are divided between direct aid to the population and financing development projects. In 2022, some €50 million were earmarked for the salaries and pensions of 55,000 Palestinian Authority civil servants and pensioners, doctors, nurses and teachers.

In addition, €40 million financed a welfare allowance for 82,000 of the poorest Palestinian families, 64,000 of whom live in the Gaza Strip. The Commission has assured that these transfers are strictly controlled: "Such system includes audits [before and after payment], verification, control, monitoring, evaluation, screening and IT systems enabling the tracking of beneficiaries against sanction lists," stated the document dedicated to the 2022 European Action Plan for Palestine. Furthermore, Brussels has contributed to infrastructure projects to improve Gaza's drinking water system and provide the territory with a desalination plant and energy infrastructure.

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