A man walks with a vest bearing the UN logo through a school run by UNRWA in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Nov. 14, 2023. (Credit: Said Khatib/AFP)
BEIRUT — The Lebanon director of the UN's aid agency for Palestinian refugees in the region (UNRWA), Dorothee Klaus, says that the organization will no longer have funding as of the end of February, meaning "operations would come to a halt during March," according to an UNRWA report published Tuesday.
The funding crisis started when Israel claimed that a dozen UNRWA staff were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 people, mostly Israelis.
While waiting for the UN investigation into the Israeli claims, several major donors suspended funding to UNRWA, including the US and Germany.
There are 30,000 UNRWA employees across the region who serve almost six million Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and neighboring countries (Jordan, Syria and Lebanon).
In Lebanon, there are around 3,500 employees, which represents 10 to 15 percent of the Palestinian refugee population in the country. The agency also been providing cash assistance to 65 percent of the population.
In the UNRWA report, Klaus said that "there is nobody capable to take over" services done by UNRWA in Lebanon, including the provision of healthcare and education to Palestinian refugees and the collection of garbage in refugee camps.
Around 200,000 Palestine refugees visit UNRWA health centers in Lebanon annually for various services, including "basic medication" and "first-response measures for children that need to be immunized" among other services, according to the agency.
"Given very high poverty rates, hospitalization would most likely have to be deferred by Palestine refugees because they’re unable to cover the costs, and this also includes 600 cancer patients which rely on UNWRA co-funding," Klaus added.
She also said that if education facilities are closed, 38,000 children would be unable to continue going to school.
"There is no other actor that has the resources and is capable to step in, given that UNRWA operates like government services for which it now has the respective infrastructure," she stressed.
UNRWA will need to make difficult decisions in light of the funding cuts.
Klaus outlined the fundamental dilemma: “The questions would be: Do we keep the children in school or do we have 600 cancer patients potentially dying? Do we close health centers that immunize newborn babies? Do we not collect the garbage?”