The operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees are at breaking point, its chief warned the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
Christian Saunders, UNRWA’s acting commissioner-general, appealed for emergency funding to prevent the underfunded agency from collapsing under the weight of war in Gaza, settler violence in the West Bank, and a $100 million cash shortfall.
“UNRWA’s financial situation is untenable and the viability of our operations across the region is at stake,” he told a pledging conference convened by the president of the UN General Assembly.
Austerity measures valued at $175 million in 2025 had so far staved off mass layoffs, Saunders said, but the agency was forced in January to cut service-delivery hours by 20 percent, slash the salaries of many Palestinian members of staff, and keep 15.5 percent of international posts vacant.
“These severe austerity and cost-control measures are not sustainable in the long term and cannot continue indefinitely,” he added, warning that without fresh funding it would be impossible “to restore UNRWA operations to their past scope, or to prevent further deterioration.”
The agency, established by the General Assembly in 1949 to provide relief “necessary to prevent conditions of starvation and distress” among Palestine refugees, finds itself still indispensable 77 years later and more embattled than ever.
The fact that this is the case “reflects our collective failure to definitively address the plight of Palestine refugees today,” Saunders said.
