UN chief warns UNRWA nearing breaking point as $100m funding gap leaves millions of Palestinians at risk

UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Tuesday that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was nearing breaking point, calling on countries to cover a $100m gap in funding for the agency and saying that millions of people are at risk due to the shortfall.

The UN chief said UNRWA's situation was increasingly precarious due to the large funding shortfall and sweeping restrictions by Israel on the agency's work throughout the occupied Palestinian territory.

"As we meet here today, the safety and welfare of millions of Palestine refugees hangs in the balance," Guterres told the donor conference.

An agency stretched to its limits

UNRWA works in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, providing aid, schooling, healthcare, social services and shelter to 2.6 million Palestinian refugees. The agency serves 5.9 million registered Palestine refugees in total.

Austerity measures valued at $175m in 2025 had so far staved off mass layoffs, UNRWA's acting Commissioner-General Christian 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.

Guterres said any further cuts could push conditions past the breaking point. UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric described the agency as facing an existential crisis.

Describing conditions in Gaza, Guterres said Israeli attacks had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians since last October's ceasefire agreement, with challenges including unexploded ordnance, open sewers, rodent infestations, disease outbreaks and widespread displacement.

With the ceasefire in Gaza stretching to eight months, nearly 1.7 million people still depend on UNRWA, which operates like a civil service, Saunders said.

Israel's restrictions and the staff toll

Such actions threatened the wellbeing of millions of Palestinians as well as UNRWA's staff, Guterres said, noting that 390 UNRWA personnel had been killed by Israel in Gaza since October 2023.

"Every single one of the agency's premises in the Strip has been damaged or destroyed," Guterres added, and international staff have been barred from entering Gaza for nearly 18 months.

Israel's actions against the agency extended beyond Gaza. In January, Israeli authorities seized UNRWA's Sheikh Jarrah compound in occupied East Jerusalem; in May, Guterres strongly condemned Israel's subsequent decision to establish military facilities at the site. The UN described the measures as a breach of the inviolability of United Nations premises and an obstacle to UNRWA's mandate across occupied Palestinian territory, including occupied East Jerusalem.

Israel disputes that characterisation. Israel's Foreign Ministry said the compound did not enjoy any immunity and that its seizure was carried out in accordance with both Israeli and international law, calling UNRWA "a greenhouse for terrorism that long ago ceased to be a humanitarian organisation." UNRWA rejects the characterisation and the underlying allegations.

The funding collapse

The United States was UNRWA's biggest donor but cut funding in January 2024 after Israel alleged — without providing evidence — that a small number of UNRWA staff took part in the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel. An investigation by the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services found that nine UNRWA employees "may have been involved" in the attack; the investigation focused on 19 staff members that Israel had made accusations against and found either no evidence or insufficient evidence against the other ten.

Most nations, except the United States, have since restored their frozen funding alongside growing private donations, but a $100m gap remains.

Member states gather each year to pledge support for the agency, but what is promised does not always arrive. In 2025, pledges reached $878m but UNRWA received only $839m, a pattern also seen in 2024.

In 2025, UNRWA received about $887m in pledges and $829m in contributions, accounting for just 27 percent of total funding needs of $3.3bn, according to the agency's website.

Reform and the mandate

Guterres said UNRWA had taken decisive steps to ensure its house was in order, including implementing more than 40 recommendations from the 2024 independent Colonna review.

He said he was "deeply concerned about UNRWA's liquidity crisis, which jeopardizes its ability to implement its mandate" — a mandate renewed by an overwhelming majority of UN member states just six months ago, underpinning services for 2.6 million people.

Saunders said the agency's workforce of around 11,000 — comparable to a government civil service — was vital for implementing Security Council Resolution 2803 and supporting the Gaza peace plan until an orderly handover to the Palestinian Authority.

UN General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock told member states gathered at the conference that the agency continued to provide essential services nearly eight decades after it was established. "A Palestinian State means that UNRWA is no longer needed," she said.

The results of the ad hoc pledging meeting were expected to be announced on Wednesday.