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A United Nations agency concerned with implementing relief and work programs for Palestinian refugees. It was founded on December 8, 1949. It has two main headquarters, one in Vienna and the other in Amman, in addition to representations in New York, Washington, Cairo, and occupied Jerusalem. It provides its services to about 5.9 million people.  

Establishment

In November 1948, the United Nations established an organization called the United Nations Relief for Palestinian Refugees to provide aid to Palestinian refugees and coordinate the services provided to them by non-governmental organizations and some other international organizations.

Later, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East was established on December 8, 1949, pursuant to General Assembly Resolution No. 302, and was named for short (UNRWA) to be a temporary ad hoc agency, with its mandate renewed every 3 years until a just solution to the issue is found. Palestinian.

UNRWA began operations on 1 May 1950, taking over the functions of the previously established relief agency, and receiving the records of Palestinian refugees from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

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The agency has two main headquarters in the Austrian capital (Vienna) and the Jordanian capital (Amman), in addition to representations in Cairo, New York, Washington, and Brussels.

Objectives

UNRWA's tasks are to implement relief and work programs for Palestinian refugees directly in cooperation with local governments, as well as to consult with concerned governments regarding the implementation of relief and work projects and planning in preparation for the time when these services are no longer available.

UNRWA's responsibility is limited to providing services to one group of refugees, namely Palestinians residing within its areas of operations, while the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is responsible for refugees in the rest of the world.

This agency provides its services to approximately 5.9 million people, and about two-thirds of this number live in 58 recognized refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 2022, the number of students enrolled in the agency’s schools reached 544,710.

The agency also has 140 primary health care centres, distributed in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, and receives more than 7 million medical cases annually, and has supported the emergency food and nutrition needs of more than 1.143 million refugees in Gaza during 2022.

Structuring

The agency is headed by a general commissioner, and a general delegate works alongside him in the capital, Amman. The Commission has sectors that include education, health, social services, infrastructure, and camps, and this is supervised by centers in a number of regions, including Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank.

UNRWA also has representations in New York, Washington, Cairo, and occupied Jerusalem.

Finance

UNRWA is funded by voluntary contributions made by countries and international bodies. The donors are the United States, the European Commission, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and other countries such as the Gulf countries, the Scandinavian countries, Japan, and Canada.

According to a report issued by the agency in July 2023, the total amounts pledged in 2022 reached 1.17 billion US dollars, including support from the United Nations Secretariat, which represents only 3.9%, while support provided by traditional partners reached 89.2%. Of the regional partners, 4.4% are distributed among new donors and partnerships with the private sector.

The funds are spent according to a specific program, with 54% allocated to education programmes, 18% to health, 18% to joint and operational services, and 10% to relief and social services programmes.

UNRWA's services include Palestinian refugees residing in its five areas of operations: the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, amounting to about 5.9 million people.

Suspension of funding during the war

On January 27, 2024, the United States announced the suspension of its financial support to UNRWA, in an old scene that was renewed, but this time it came amid warnings from the agency - as well as the World Food Program - of the occurrence of famine after aid was cut off from hundreds of thousands of residents besieged in the north of the besieged Strip. This forced some residents to grind animal fodder to make bread from it.

Nine other countries also took similar decisions, based on Israel’s claim that agency employees were involved in the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on October 7, 2023.

Commenting on these decisions, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, warned of the collapse of the provision of aid to millions of needy people in Gaza, and considered that the decision of these countries threatens the organization’s ongoing humanitarian work throughout the region, specifically the Gaza Strip. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, also appealed to donors to ensure the continuation of the work. UNRWA.

As for Israel, its Foreign Minister, Yisrael Katz, called on more countries to join the campaign to stop funding UNRWA, and also called on the agency’s Commissioner-General to resign.

Crises are renewed

The funding suspension crisis in January 2024 was not the first in the history of UNRWA, which has faced, over decades, a series of Israeli pressures that reached the point of bombing the agency’s schools, facilities, and shelter centers in Gaza more than once.

On January 16, 2018, shortly after former US President Donald Trump came to power, his country announced that it was withholding $65 million out of $125 million that it was planning to send to the agency, and on August 31, 2018, Washington announced that it would not pledge any additional funding, but rather accused UNRWA made mistakes.

Although the agency benefited from new contributions from other countries during 2018, these contributions declined in the following years, bringing its budget deficit to $223 million in 2020, before American funding returned with the arrival of President Joe Biden to power.

The agency suffered multiple financial deficits, especially between the years (2011-2016), which sometimes prompted it to reduce its basic programs and make urgent appeals to donors.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies