https://arab.news/9z4pe
- UNRWA employs 12,000 people in the Palestinian territories, and its services are vital to Palestinians
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said UNRWA will have no role in postwar Gaza
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which is no longer receiving US funding, on Thursday asked other donor nations for more money, warning that its operations could suffer without a cash infusion.
“We run week by week, month by month. I know that as of today, we will be able to process our salaries in November, but have no idea if or no visibility if we will be able to process our salaries in December,” chief Philippe Lazzarini told a press conference.
Israel has barred UNRWA from operating on its soil after accusing some of its employees of participating in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, which triggered the bloody conflict in Gaza.
Following those allegations, the United States — historically the agency’s biggest donor — suspended its support.
In the wake of Israel’s decision, UNRWA was forced to repatriate its international staff from Gaza and the West Bank, limiting its food aid distribution abilities.
But it still employs 12,000 people in the Palestinian territories, and its services are vital to Palestinians, Lazzarini insisted.
“About 75,000 people were sheltered in 100 of our premises across the Gaza Strip,” he told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.
“We have, over the last two years, provided more than 15 million primary health consultations. Today, the average is about 14,000 a day,” he added, also noting the agency’s joint vaccination campaign with UNICEF and the World Health Organization.
UNRWA predicts that its budget shortfall between the last quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026 will be about $200 million.
“Unlike in previous years, the projected income in the first quarter of 2026 is too low to absorb a large deficit from 2025,” Lazzarini said.
“In the absence of a significant influx of new funding, the delivery of critical services to millions of Palestine refugees across the region will be compromised.”
While US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said UNRWA will have no role in postwar Gaza, Lazzarini noted that since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold, “we have expanded our services.”