NEW YORK (Dispatches) – The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has urged Persian Gulf states to give a fraction of the money mentioned in U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‘mega deals’ to Palestinian refugees struggling to survive in the occupied Palestinian territories and neighboring countries.
Philippe Lazzarini told Middle East Eye that UNRWA, the largest humanitarian provider for approximately six million Palestinian refugees, is currently operating with a “negative cash flow,” and the shortage of funds may force him to take “a difficult decision” as U.S. funding remains suspended. 
“We are confronted with a very severe financial crisis, which, if it persists in the near future, will force me to take a difficult and painful decision,” he told MEE’s upcoming episode of Expert Witness podcast.
“Because if we have no resources, we cannot pay the staff. We might be confronted with a situation where the money is not available any more, even to process our salaries. And if that is the case, the agency will be forced to look at what services among the critical services are more critical than others.”
UNRWA, whose staff members are mostly Palestinian refugees, has been at the receiving end of Israeli attacks since the beginning of the Zionist regime’s war on Gaza in October 2023. At least 310 of its employees have been killed by the Israeli army over the past 19 months and over 80 percent of its premises have been destroyed. 
In January last year, 18 states suspended their funding to UNRWA pending investigations into alleged Hamas links. However, by July, all states except for the U.S. reinstated their funding after a UN inquiry found no evidence of wrongdoing by UNRWA staff. 
So far, no country has stepped in to compensate the agency for the lack of U.S. funding, said Lazzarini. 
He called on Persian Gulf states to dedicate more funding for UNRWA, saying he wished the multi-billion dollar deals with Donald Trump in his latest Persian Gulf tour included pledges for Palestinian refugees.
Trump’s Middle East trip, which included stops in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), resulted in deals worth over $700bn, with the White House claiming that $2 trillion worth of deals have been agreed.
“I wish a trickle of all these trillions of dollars committed would also come for the Palestinian refugees,” Lazzarini told MEE.