Press Releases
(Bethlehem, 21 January 2026)
On 20 January 2026, Israeli forces, accompanied by Ben-Gvir, stormed UNRWA’s headquarters in Jerusalem, demolished structures, and replaced the UN flag with the Israeli flag. This direct physical assault represents the on-the-ground enforcement of a broader campaign to dismantle UNRWA and undermine the authority of the UN itself. It is not an isolated incident, but part of a sustained, coordinated effort by the Israeli regime and the US to eliminate one of the UN system’s core agencies, remove oversight, and shift responsibility from states onto the Agency itself. In this context, the Agency’s financial deficit is not the result of mismanagement, but of the sustained failure of states to meet their legal, political, and financial obligations to Palestinian refugees and to the UN. Political obstruction, donor withdrawal, and coercive measures imposed by the Israeli regime have been absorbed internally by UNRWA, allowing states to evade accountability and reframe the problem as an internal managerial issue.
Recent developments affecting UNRWA must be understood first and foremost as part of a coordinated campaign by the Israeli regime and the US to dismantle the Agency’s mandate, legal standing, and operational presence. These measures shift the burden of responsibility from states onto the Agency itself, reframing the failure of states to fulfill their obligations as an internal administrative problem. While UNRWA’s current deficit has been widely described as a funding issue, the decisions taken in response, including workforce reductions and the dismissal of Palestinian staff, do nothing to address the underlying shortfall. On the contrary, these measures align with the objectives of the Israeli regime while also relieving states of their legal and political obligations, even as the UN has remained largely passive, offering only verbal condemnations that are not followed by actions.
Against this backdrop, workforce reductions signal a dangerous institutional contraction. The dismissal of approximately 600 staff members and the reduction of weekly hours from 37.5 to 30, resulting in an effective salary cut of roughly 20 percent, do not restore operations or protect refugees. Instead, these measures further hollow out UNRWA’s capacity while normalizing institutional contraction in the face of escalating need. Terminating the contracts of staff who themselves have fled Israeli genocide transfers the consequences of external violations onto Palestinian workers, damages institutional continuity, and signals a retreat rather than protection. These austerity measures risk internalizing and legitimizing the very pressures imposed by the Israeli regime and the US.
These developments must also be understood in the context of a broader push to replace the UN system. Initiatives by the Trump administration and its allies to impose discretionary structures such as the so-called “Board of Peace” for Gaza sideline binding international law, substitute rights-based mechanisms with political management, and destroy the multilateral framework that recognizes Palestinian refugees as rights-holders and states as duty-bearers. What is unfolding is no longer an attack on UNRWA alone, but an expanding assault on the UN system and the multilateral legal order itself.
This institutional contraction directly undermines UNRWA’s indispensable role in any future reconstruction and service provision in Gaza, across Palestine, and other host states. UNRWA remains the only agency with the mandate, scale, infrastructure, and community trust necessary to restore education, health, relief, and social services at the speed and scope required. That capacity is inseparable from its Palestinian workforce.
States that are legally obligated to protect Palestinian refugee rights, safeguard UNRWA, and ensure the continuity of its operations, instead, play a role in acquiescing to its gradual elimination. They are not neutral observers. They are complicit, actively contributing to the dismantling of Palestinian refugee rights, the institutions mandated to protect them, and the international legal system they claim to uphold.