MOSCOW, September 18 (RIA Novosti) - The Palestinian Authority has received $10 million in aid from Russia for health and education in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

"Under the current circumstances of socio-economic and humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories, the government of the Russian Federation has decided to provide urgent and gratis aid to the Palestinian Authority in the sum of $10 million," a statement from the ministry said.

The ministry said that the allocated sum "had been transferred into the accounts of the Palestinian Authority Finance Ministry."

The Gaza Strip has been controlled by the radical Islamic group Hamas since June 2007.

Last month Russia sent humanitarian aid including food and medicines to the Palestinian territories.