GAZA (Dispatches) – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) vowed Tuesday to continue its services despite the possibility that the U.S. will stop its financial aid.
"Despite austerity, the Agency is committed to continuing its vital services to the Palestinian refugees," UNRWA Spokesman Sami Masha'sa said in a press release sent to Xinhua.
This commitment will not be affected by any intention of the United States to withhold assistance from the agency.
The U.S. is so far the biggest supporter of the UNRWA. It is contributing more than 300 million U.S. dollars to the agency annually.
"Even if without this year's U.S. financial pledges, UNRWA will not leave Palestinian refugees alone and will continue to operate in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as its presence and services in East Jerusalem (al-Quds)," Masha'sa noted.
UNRWA provides services to 5.3 million refugees in the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, and operates 711 schools and 143 health clinics.
The United States has threatened to freeze or delay its financial support payment to the UNRWA until the Palestinians return to the negotiating table with the Zionist regime.
UNRWA plays a significant role in supporting Palestinian refugees by providing access to education, healthcare, social services and employment in the occupied Palestinian territories and in neighboring states.
In other reports, UNRWA said it has been forced to lay off more than 100 employees in Jordan because of the United States’ refusal to allow the transfer of financial aid to the agency.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced the lay-offs on Tuesday, Jordan’s al-Ghad newspaper reported.
The agency, it said, had started 2018 with a $174-million budget deficit, which is feared to get worse if its financial predicaments exacerbate.
UNRWA staffers have reportedly planned a January 21 sit-in in front of the U.S. Embassy in Amman.
"The administration is preparing to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the year’s first contribution, cutting a planned $125-million installment by half or perhaps entirely,” AP cited U.S. officials in Washington as saying this week.  

Palestinian children sit by sacks of food aid provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), in the town of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, August 22, 2017.