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.”
UN agency for Palestinian refugees asks for more funding
https://arab.news/24r6g
UN agency for Palestinian refugees asks for more funding
- 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
Family of Palestinian-American shot dead by Israeli settler demand accountability
- Relatives say Abu Siyam was among about 30 residents from the village of Mukhmas who confronted armed settlers attempting to steal goats from the community
LONDON: The family of a 19-year-old Palestinian-American man reportedly shot dead by an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank have demanded accountability, amid mounting scrutiny over a surge in settler violence and a lack of prosecutions.
Nasrallah Abu Siyam, a US citizen born in Philadelphia, was killed near the city of Ramallah on Wednesday, becoming at least the sixth American citizen to die in incidents involving Israeli settlers or soldiers in the territory in the past two years.
Relatives say Abu Siyam was among about 30 residents from the village of Mukhmas who confronted armed settlers attempting to steal goats from the community. Witnesses said that stones were thrown by both sides before settlers opened fire, wounding at least three villagers.
Abu Siyam was struck and later died of his injuries.
Abdulhamid Siyam, the victim’s cousin, said the killing reflected a wider pattern of impunity.
“A young man of 19 shot and killed in cold blood, and no responsibility,” he told the BBC. “Impunity completely.”
The US State Department said that it was aware of the death of a US citizen and was “carefully monitoring the situation,” while the Trump administration said that it stood ready to provide consular assistance.
The Israeli embassy in Washington said the incident was under review and that an operational inquiry “must be completed as soon as possible.”
A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces said troops were deployed to the scene and used “riot dispersal means to restore order,” adding that no IDF gunfire was reported.
The military confirmed that the incident remained under review and said that a continued presence would be maintained in the area to prevent further unrest.
Palestinians and human rights organizations say such reviews rarely lead to criminal accountability, arguing that Israeli authorities routinely fail to prosecute settlers accused of violence.
A US embassy spokesperson later said that Washington “condemns this violence,” as international concern continues to grow over conditions in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians and human rights groups say Israeli authorities routinely fail to investigate or prosecute settlers accused of violence against civilians.
Those concerns were echoed this week by the UN, which warned that Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank may amount to ethnic cleansing.
A UN human rights office report on Thursday said that Israeli settlement expansion, settler attacks and military operations have increasingly displaced Palestinian communities, with dozens of villages reportedly emptied since the start of the Gaza war.
The report also criticized Israeli military tactics in the northern West Bank, saying that they resembled warfare and led to mass displacement, while noting abuses by Palestinian security forces, including the use of unnecessary lethal force and the intimidation of critics.
Neither Israel’s foreign ministry nor the Palestinian Authority has commented on the findings.
