UNRWA workers in Gaza protested against the reduction in US aid for the organization. The march continued, paralysing all UNRWA facilities in the Gaza Strip.
The director of UNRWA operations in the Gaza Strip, “Matice Shamali,” rejected the politicization of the United States’ aid.
He pointed out that the presence of UNRWA was linked to a political issue, and a political solution to the issue must be found before it is eliminated.
The 13,000 UNRWA workers strike led to closing schools, medical dispensaries and food distribution centres. They also raised flags and banners and organized a protest march to UN headquarters in Gaza City.
The United States, the UNRWAs largest shareholder so far, announced on January 16 that it would withhold $ 65 million from the $ 125 million, which it had planned to send to the agency this year.
More than half the population of the Gaza Strip – about two million people – depends on UNRWA and other agencies. Palestinians say that the decision to cut funding could exacerbate difficulties in the sector, with unemployment that reached 46 %.
The United Nations General Assembly established UNRWA in 1949, after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war that followed the establishment of Israel.
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