Defunded Palestinian UN agency prepares to cut services

United Nations special envoy Nickolay Mladenov announced to the Security Council on Tuesday that the Palestinians’ dedicated UN organization is rapidly running out of cash.

By: World Israel News Staff

Following cuts of $250 million by the United States to the budget of the Palestinians’ UN organization (UNRWA), the agency acknowledged on Tuesday the dire financial crisis it faces.

UNRWA is charged with doling out international donations to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Jordan, and various Palestinian-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria.

At a Security Council meeting on Tuesday, UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the body that UNRWA is “weeks away from painful cuts to its emergency assistance for Gaza and elsewhere in the region,” reported AFP.

Lacking a significant portion of the funding UNRWA claims it needs, the agency will apparently stop paying salaries and suspend significant operations in Gaza, an official announced Tuesday.

UNRWA serves only Palestinians and has been plagued by accusations of links to the Hamas terrorist organization. For instance, in April 2017 UNRWA was forced to fire a Hamas member whose affiliation had been exposed.

In 2018, a report by Israel Resources News Agency (IRNA) revealed that a significant cause of the Gaza Strip’s humanitarian issues can be attributed to Hamas’ tight control on the UNRWA workers’ union, which allegedly hoards food supplies to manufacture a staged “humanitarian crisis.”

Notwithstanding this purported crisis, Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip,
poured $260 million into manufacturing rockets and digging terror tunnels in the coastal enclave during the past year alone.

US President Donald Trump’s administration announced in January its intention to slash UNRWA contributions, based on the agency’s failure to reform.