GENEVA: The UN’s beleaguered agency for Palestinian refugees said on Wednesday that a “dire” financial crisis had this week forced it to fire hundreds of staff who had left the territory.

“On Tuesday, 571 local UNRWA staff, outside Gaza, were informed that they were being separated from the agency with immediate effect,” a spokesperson said.

For more than seven decades, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees has provided aid and assistance across Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

But the agency has seen the voluntary contributions it relies on dwindle as it has become the focus of increasingly harsh Israeli criticism and attacks, causing an unprecedented financial crisis.

While the work UNRWA was mandated to do cost $880 million last year, the agency received only around $570m in contributions, the spokesperson said. “As things stand, we expect a substantial shortfall in 2026.”

All of the staff affected by this week’s announcement had originally worked in the Gaza Strip, but had managed to leave early after the conflict broke out in Oct 2023.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2026