Despite record $100 million shortfall, Palestine relief agency still ‘a critical platform’ for Gaza recovery

The UN agency serving 5.9 million Palestine refugees, UNRWA, continues to strive to deliver on its mandate while facing an unprecedented $100 million budget shortfall, a gap it hopes to narrow during Tuesday’s pledging conference at UN Headquarters.

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.

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.

“I’m counting on you to keep speaking up for the agency,” he said, urging them to also pledge support for UNRWA’s essential work.

‘Critical platform for recovery’ 

At the same time, the work of UNRWA remains unchanged, even though funding shortfalls have meant reduced service delivery and other cost-saving measures. 

Indeed, needs have grown since the war and amid the recovery, where most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents remain in shelters and tents facing food insecurity and a dearth of essential services.

Today, with the stuttering ceasefire in Gaza stretching to eight months, nearly 1.7 million people still depend on UNRWA, which operates like a civil service, said Christian Saunders, the agency’s acting Commissioner-General.

“UNRWA is a critical platform for recovery, institutional stability and lasting peace,” he said, underscoring that its capacities are “vital” for:

• Implementing Security Council resolution 2803 (2025) that recognised the Hamas-Israel ceasefire in Gaza and the [President Donald] Trump Declaration for Enduring Peace and Prosperity
• Efforts of President Trump’s Board of Peace
• The international committee for the administration of Gaza

Among UN’s first aid agencies

Established by the General Assembly in 1948, UNRWA was never meant to be permanent, but hinged on the notion of the creation of a Palestinian State alongside Israel.

Nearly eight decades later, the UN agency continues to provide such lifechanging services as access to clean water, education, healthcare and hope, the UN General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock told Member States gathered at the pledging conference.

“A Palestinian State means that UNRWA is no longer needed,” she said. “Until that day comes, let us never stop working for the two-State solution and let us never stop supporting UNRWA.”