UNRWA staff march in Gaza against job cuts as PLO tells acting chief to resign and Israel presses at UN

Employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees marched through Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Monday to protest expected job cuts, as Palestinian officials demanded that the agency's acting head resign rather than lay off staff. On the same day, Israel's mission to the United Nations screened a documentary about the agency for diplomats in New York, and Israeli and US envoys said it has no future in Gaza.

The agency, known as UNRWA, says it faces a funding gap that it has put at between $70 million and $100 million this year. Its acting commissioner-general, Christian Saunders, has said that without new money he will have to cut staff, and that this would reduce services. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the agency's staff unions and several donor governments oppose the layoffs. The US-led Board of Peace, which oversees Gaza's post-war plan, says UNRWA has no role in the territory.

This story sets out what each side has said in its own words, the figures in dispute and the points that are still unclear. It follows earlier 567 Politics reporting on Gaza's fourth winter in tents and on the gap over who governs Gaza.

The march in Nuseirat

Dozens of men, women and children walked through the streets of Nuseirat camp toward one of the agency's schools, AFP journalists reported. Marchers, including people who receive UNRWA services, carried signs reading "No to job cuts" and "No to reducing refugee services."

"This march and this event are intended to make it clear that we oppose the dismissal of any employee, because dismissing employees means ending services for refugees and a decline in the quality of services," the head of the staff union, named by AFP as Mustafa Al-Ghour, told the agency.

UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler told AFP that "the agency has been experiencing unprecedented financial and operational difficulties for some time now and difficult decisions may be necessary in the near future." He said the matter was under review and that the agency could not say more for now.

According to AFP, UNRWA employs 10,500 people in Gaza and 4,500 in the occupied West Bank.

The online outlet Mondoweiss, in a report from Gaza published this month, named the head of the Arab Staff Union in Gaza as Mustafa Al-Ghoul. It said he had announced ten days of "administrative disobedience" across the agency's institutions while services continue. He told the outlet that UNRWA had dismissed about 1,000 staff in Gaza and let 2,000 retire without replacing them. He said the workforce across the agency's five fields had fallen from 32,000 to 25,000.

"We reject the dismissal of any employee on the pretext of a financial crisis," he told Mondoweiss. "Look for funding as you always have, but not at the expense of the staff."

567 Politics could not confirm those staffing figures with UNRWA. The agency has not published a count of layoffs.

The PLO demands the acting chief step down

In Ramallah on Monday, the PLO's Department of Refugee Affairs held a news conference on the agency's future, Euronews Arabic reported. The head of the department, Ahmad Abu Holi, called on Saunders to resign if he could not carry out his duties.

"You should resign, not end UNRWA," Abu Holi said, addressing Saunders, according to Euronews. He said a letter sent to Saunders rejected the planned measures "in whole and in detail." He said talks with the agency's management must not turn into bargaining over how many staff are let go.

Abu Holi compared the current gap with 2018. He said the deficit that year reached about $400 million, against about $70 million now, and that the agency did not lay off staff at the time. He called the current situation "a political crisis par excellence" aimed at the agency's role and at the refugee question.

He also said Palestinian officials were working to restore Swedish funding of $48 million after the Social Democrats' election win, and pointed to a new UNRWA liaison office in Turkey. A meeting with Saunders was being arranged, he said, with the Palestinian foreign minister and members of the PLO Executive Committee.

Other PLO officials spoke at the same event. Executive Committee member Wasel Abu Youssef rejected layoffs justified by the financial crisis, Euronews reported. Bassam al-Salhi, who leads the Palestinian People's Party, warned against treating the agency's steps apart from Israeli and US pressure. He proposed joint protests in all five fields of operation.

The head of the Arab Staff Union, named by Euronews as Abdul Karim Abu Ghali, criticized what he said Saunders had described as a plan for a "smaller, more sustainable agency." He said cutting staff would harm the agency's ability to do its work.

The news conference built on an October 25 decision by the PLO Executive Committee. The committee "categorically rejected" plans for large-scale layoffs, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA. It called for urgent action to raise about $70 million "to meet immediate funding needs and ensure staff salaries are paid for November and December."

The committee urged Saunders "to abandon any plans for staff layoffs, suspend related measures, and safeguard employees' rights and salaries." It proposed a joint committee of host countries and the PLO to lead a funding drive. It also asked the agency's management to open serious talks with the local staff union rather than taking "unilateral decisions."

What the agency's leadership says

Saunders has given his own account of the agency's finances in public statements and interviews.

At a meeting of the agency's Advisory Commission in Amman on June 17, he said UNRWA's financial situation was "clearly untenable." He said austerity steps worth $175 million in 2025 had "largely prevented the loss of jobs for Palestine Refugees." But he said that in January the agency "was compelled to reduce its service delivery hours by 20%, with a corresponding reduction in salaries for most Palestinian staff."

"Despite this consequential measure, a cashflow deficit of $100 million remains for 2026," he said. He said the agency's goal over the next five to ten years was to become "more financially sustainable and supportable," including by "reducing duplication and redundancy."

In an interview with Turkey's Anadolu Agency published on October 20, Saunders put the gap lower. "The deficit at the moment is about $70 million," he said. "If we don't receive money in the very near future, I will have to take some regrettable actions in order to ensure that we're able to finish the year and to pay our staff salaries."

"If you cut the money, then we have to cut the number of people working for UNRWA, and that means a reduction in the quality and the breadth of our services," he said.

In the same interview, Saunders rejected Israeli claims that Hamas has infiltrated the agency. He said UNRWA acts at once when there is credible evidence against a staff member. "I think the Israeli authorities are critical of UNRWA because they would like to see UNRWA eliminated," he said.

He also said the agency backs the US peace plan for Gaza. "US President Trump's 20-point plan, UN Security Council Resolution 2803, the Board of Peace, and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza – we are completely behind these efforts," he said.

Israel and the United States press their case at the UN

On Monday, Israel's mission to the UN hosted a screening of a documentary called "UNravelling UNRWA" for dozens of diplomats in New York, according to The Jerusalem Post and Israel National News. The film includes interviews with former UNRWA officials Scott Anderson and Peter Hansen.

"In recent years, Israel has presented extensive evidence of Hamas's infiltration and exploitation of UNRWA's facilities and operations," said Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon. "Its schools have taught hate, individuals affiliated with the agency actively participated in the atrocities of October 7, and weapons intended to target our brave soldiers were discovered at UNRWA facilities in Gaza."

"Slowly but surely, and with unwavering determination, the truth is coming to light," Danon said.

Jeff Bartos of the US mission to the UN also spoke. "UNRWA has no future in Gaza," he said, according to both outlets. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, and that is exactly the story of UNRWA."

Israeli laws that cut ties with the agency and barred it from operating on Israeli territory took effect in January 2025, AFP reported. An independent review led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna found some "neutrality-related issues" at the agency. AFP said the review also stressed that Israel had not provided conclusive evidence for its main allegation. Saunders told the June meeting that 40 of the review's 50 recommendations had been fully carried out.

The Board of Peace and a reported transfer plan

The Board of Peace, chaired by President Donald Trump, has stated its position on UNRWA in posts on X. "UNRWA has no place in the new Gaza," it wrote on July 1. "We are turning the page on the complex of perpetual aid dependency & conflict."

On September 25, it wrote that its policy "is unchanged." It said: "We will only work with trusted partners who will deliver for the people of Gaza and contribute to a deradicalized Strip. UNRWA fails on those litmus tests."

The same day, the Associated Press reported that board officials had met UNRWA several times since the ceasefire. A board official told the AP that "UNRWA's days are over." But the official said its employees "will remain if they pass vetting and are delivering on their mandate and not advancing ideology or Hamas interests." The agency's former head, Philippe Lazzarini, called the gap between those positions an "absurd contradiction."

On Sunday, Israel Hayom reported that a plan to gradually shut down the agency and move its work to other bodies was expected to be presented soon. Citing Arab and Western diplomatic sources, the paper said Saunders was leading the plan. It said the plan would shift work in the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority and education and health care in Gaza to the Board of Peace.

The paper said representatives of Switzerland and Ireland opposed the proposal at an advisory meeting in Amman, and that Egypt joined them. It said Ireland's representative would seek other funding to prevent the agency's closure.

UNRWA has not publicly confirmed such a plan. 567 Politics found no statement from the agency describing a transfer of its work to the Board of Peace. Saunders's public statements have described cuts and a smaller, more sustainable model, not a closure.

Mondoweiss quoted Sami Mshasha, a former UNRWA spokesperson, as calling the deficit "a manufactured crisis." He said "the decision to dismiss staff aligns with the plans of the Board of Peace." The outlet said it could not independently verify his claims.

The figures in dispute

The numbers used by each side come from different dates and are not all measuring the same thing.

The June figure is a cashflow gap for the full year. The October figure is the shortfall Saunders described at that time. The PLO's call for $70 million is tied to paying salaries for the last two months of the year. 567 Politics has not been able to reconcile these figures. Our methodology page explains how we handle numbers from parties to a dispute.

Open questions

Several key facts are not yet public. UNRWA has not said how many staff it plans to dismiss, in which fields, or when. Staff union figures and those reported by Mondoweiss have not been confirmed by the agency.

It is also unclear whether new money will arrive in time. Abu Holi pointed to possible Swedish funding, and Israel Hayom reported that Ireland would look for other sources. No new pledge that would close the gap has been announced.

The future of the agency's work in Gaza is tied to the wider plan for the territory. As earlier reporting on the Board of Peace's stalled plans and on conditions in the West Bank has shown, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and the board disagree on who should run services. Israel Hayom said diplomats expect the fight over UNRWA's future to move to the Security Council and the General Assembly.

The agency's mandate comes from the UN General Assembly, which created it under Resolution 302 in 1949. The PLO and Palestinian officials quoted by Israel Hayom say any decision to dissolve it would need the assembly's approval.

Differing perspectives

How should UNRWA's funding gap and its future role in Gaza be handled?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Adapt to a smaller budget while protecting services

  Who holds it: UNRWA acting Commissioner-General Christian Saunders

  UNRWA's acting chief says the agency's finances are untenable and that austerity has already cut service hours by 20 percent, with matching pay cuts. He says it will not be possible to restore operations or prevent further decline without significant new money. He says the agency must become more sustainable over five to ten years while protecting front-line services.

  In their words: UNRWA ↗

• Fund the agency and stop the layoffs

  Who holds it: PLO Executive Committee

  The PLO Executive Committee says staff are the backbone of UNRWA and that laying them off would not solve the funding crisis. It says cuts would threaten schools, clinics and relief for millions of refugees and harm regional stability. It argues that funding the agency is an international duty under its UN mandate and asks donors to raise about $70 million now.

  In their words: WAFA ↗

• Staff should not pay for the deficit

  Who holds it: UNRWA staff union leaders and dismissed staff in Gaza

  Staff union leaders reject the dismissal of any employee on the grounds of a financial crisis. They argue that the agency should look for money as it has in past crises rather than making staff pay for the gap. They say the cuts are falling hardest on Gaza, and dismissed workers say they kept services running through the war at great risk.

  In their words: Mondoweiss ↗

• The agency has no future in Gaza

  Who holds it: Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon; US envoy Jeff Bartos

  Israel's UN ambassador says Israel has presented extensive evidence that Hamas infiltrated and exploited UNRWA's facilities and operations. He says its schools spread incitement, people tied to the agency took part in the October 7 attack and weapons were found at its sites in Gaza. The US envoy at the same event said UNRWA has no future in Gaza.

  In their words: The Jerusalem Post ↗

• Work only with vetted, trusted partners

  Who holds it: Board of Peace

  The Board of Peace says it will work only with trusted partners who deliver for Gazans and help build a deradicalized Strip, and that UNRWA fails those tests. It argues that ending the agency's role will move Gaza away from long-term aid dependency toward a self-sustaining economy with better conditions for Palestinians.

  In their words: Board of Peace on X ↗