Palestinian relief agency faces cash crunch unless funding resumes, chief says

The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Thursday it faces a cash crunch from next month that will only get worse in April if funding suspended by a number of countries does not resume.
Israel has said UNRWA, which has helped Palestinians for more than 70 years, is not fit for purpose and major donors have suspended funding after allegations that 12 of UNRWA’s thousands of Palestinian employees were suspected of involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that started the Gaza war.
“We will hit a negative cashflow as from March and then it will be accelerated in April unless this frozen contribution is unlocked,” UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini told Irish national broadcaster RTE before a meeting in Dublin with the foreign minister.
Lazzarini has held extensive consultations with donors, including a trip to Gulf countries and Brussels, in recent days to try to plug UNRWA’s funding shortfall of some $440 million.