has done for them is not necessarily looking at the full picture."

Under both the Obama and Trump administrations, the White House and Congress frequently held up and limited aid to the Palestinians to protest Palestinian actions deemed as undermining Israel. A new law passed by Congress forbids aid directly benefitting the Palestinian Authority government until it stops the practice of paying stipends to Palestinians in Israeli prison convicted for violence.

What money the U.S. has given to the Palestinians is but a small sliver of what it gives to its neighbor Israel. Israel has received more U.S. aid than any other country since World War II.

The U.S. quietly released funding a few weeks ago to the Palestinian Authority security forces. The money supports them working with Israel to maintainsecurity in the West Bank, the State Department said.

Now the administration is deciding which other Palestinian aid projects it might unfreeze, based on whether the projects meet national security interests and policy goals and provide "value to U.S. taxpayers," a State Department official said, without specifying.

The deadline is approaching soon: Action must be taken before the fiscal year finishes at the end of next month and funding disappears for good.

The U.S. has asked other countries to step up their contributions to the Palestinians. Some have, pledging money to U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which handles programs serving Palestinian refugees. The U.K. recently announced it would double its aid to the West Bank and Gaza.

But aid agencies say they struggle to raise money to help Palestinians, with international donors