JAKARTA - Funding is very important for the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), which no longer receives US support, said the head of the agency Philippe Lazzarini.
The agency's operations supporting millions of Palestinians can get worse without cash flow, said Lazzarini.
"On the other hand, its mandate and operations are very important for political solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," he added.
"We operate week after week, month after month. I know starting today, we will be able to process our salaries in November, but we don't know if we will be able to process our salaries in December," said Lazzarini, quoted by The National November 14.
Israel is known to have banned UNRWA from operating in its territory after accusing some of the agency's staff of participating in the October 2023 attack by Hamas, which sparked bloody conflict in Gaza.
After the allegations, the US, which has historically been the agency's largest donor, suspended its support.
After Israel's decision, UNRWA was forced to repatriate its international staff from Gaza and the occupied West Bank, thus limiting its food aid distribution capabilities.
However, UNRWA still employs 12,000 people in the Palestinian territories and its services are vital, said Lazzarini.
"About 75,000 people are accommodated in 100 of our locations in the Gaza Strip," he said at the UN headquarters in New York, United States on Thursday.
SEE ALSO:
-
| BERITA
Iran Desak PBB Minta Pertanggungjawaban AS dan Israel atas Serangan Bulan Juni
14 November 2025, 19:00 -
| BERITA
Polandia Berencana Membuka Kembali Dua Penyeberangan Perbatasan dengan Belarus
14 November 2025, 18:30
"Over the past two years, we have provided more than 15 million primary health consultations. Currently, the average is around 14,000 per day," he said.
In another development, Lazzarini said it had informed "UN General Assembly, maintaining UNRWA's mandate and operations is critical to the survival of millions of Palestinians, important to the much-needed political solutions".
"I highlight the latest efforts of continuing disinformation attacks aimed at discrediting and disbanding the agency," he added.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
