Despite record $100 million shortfall, Palestine relief agency still ‘a critical platform’ for Gaza recovery
Operating primarily on voluntary donations since its inception in the late 1940s, UNRWA continues to provide lifesaving and essential services in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Operating primarily on voluntary donations since its inception in the late 1940s, UNRWA continues to provide lifesaving and essential services in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, from school programmes to polio vaccines, with the UN chief calling it a “lifeline” to Palestinians. However, UN Secretary-General António Guterres raised sharp concerns on Tuesday about the agency’s cash shortfall, which he said “has grave implications for the entire region”. “UNRWA is a stabilising force in an age of instability, registering, protecting and assisting highly vulnerable populations and countering the hopelessness that can fuel insecurity,” he said. Nominal ceasefire A pendulum of pledges followed the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead and 250 taken hostage, with subsequent Israeli strikes that turned much of Gaza into rubble, displaced 80 per cent of the population and killed at least 70,000 people, according to local authorities. Tweet URL Since 2023, attacks on UNRWA have left some 390 staff dead and UN property bombed, striking such critical services as schools and hospitals alongside disinformation drives, with allegations in early 2024 that some agency staff were complicit in attacks on Israel.
While the allegations were independently investigated and nations, except the United States, have thawed their frozen funding alongside growing private donations, a $100 million gap remains. Unkept pledging promises Every year, Member States gather to pledge their support for the agency, but what is promised is not always what arrives, making it challenging to operate and has forced the agency to cut back on what it is mandated to deliver. For example, in 2025, pledges reached $878 million, but UNRWA received only $839 million, a pattern also seen in 2024. “They cannot keep going like this without urgent backing and financial support from Member States,” Mr. Guterres said, adding that the liquidity crisis also jeopardises UNWRA’s ability to implement its mandate, given by the General Assembly and renewed six months ago with overwhelming Member State support. UN chief appalled by smear campaigns Appalled by continued efforts to marginalise or tarnish UNRWA’s critical work with diplomatic roadblocks and smear campaigns, the UN Secretary-General said “UNRWA has taken decisive steps to ensure its house is in order.” That included already implementing more than 40 recommendations from the 2024 independent Colonna report, he said.
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