More than 16 countries, including the United States, to stop funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) UNRWA was established in 1949 to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to Palestine refugees registered in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. About 250,000 refugees live dependent on the agency’s services in the health, educational and financial fields, while they remain deprived of their civil and human rights by the Lebanese state.