The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced on Wednesday that it had to lay off 571 staff from the Gaza Strip this week due to a dire financial situation. This was reported by the AFP agency, writes TASR.
UNRWA has been providing aid and support to Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria for over 70 years. It finances its operation from voluntary contributions, the volume of which, however, has decreased. In 2025, UNRWA received only about 570 million of the required approximately 880 million dollars for its activities.
The staff affected by Tuesday’s layoffs originally worked in the Gaza Strip. However, he managed to leave the Palestinian enclave at the beginning of the war between the militant movement Hamas and Israel – in the fall of 2023.
Hamas, which triggered the war in Gaza with its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, criticized UNRWA’s decision as unfair. According to the movement, this is a violation of the fundamental rights of now former employees of the agency. Hamas also called on UNRWA to “assume its role and responsibility towards the Palestinians and its staff.”
A spokesman for the agency explained that most of the dismissed workers were unable to perform their duties remotely after leaving the Gaza Strip. However, the agency paid them until last March, when it ordered them to take extraordinary unpaid leave.
“The affected staff have not been paid for more than ten months and it is impossible to predict when or if they will be able to resume their duties for reasons completely beyond UNRWA’s control,” the spokesperson said. According to him, the agency decided to fire them because of its “critical” financial situation. This is also a consequence of intense vilification, the spokesperson pointed out.
Israel banned UNRWA from operating on its territory and effectively in the Gaza Strip as well. He accused the agency that its employees also worked for the Hamas movement and some of them participated in the October 2023 attack. The International Court of Justice ruled last fall that Israel had not proven these accusations.
A fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas brokered by the United States has been in force in the Gaza Strip since October 10, 2025.
