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Officials Warn of Devastating Consequences If UNRWA Funding Is Not Restored

Members of the Zourub family, displaced from the central Gaza Strip, keep warm by a fire outside their tent, near the border separating the Gaza Strip and Egypt, in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip 27 February 2024. (EPA)
Members of the Zourub family, displaced from the central Gaza Strip, keep warm by a fire outside their tent, near the border separating the Gaza Strip and Egypt, in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip 27 February 2024. (EPA)
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Officials Warn of Devastating Consequences If UNRWA Funding Is Not Restored

Members of the Zourub family, displaced from the central Gaza Strip, keep warm by a fire outside their tent, near the border separating the Gaza Strip and Egypt, in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip 27 February 2024. (EPA)
Members of the Zourub family, displaced from the central Gaza Strip, keep warm by a fire outside their tent, near the border separating the Gaza Strip and Egypt, in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip 27 February 2024. (EPA)

If funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is not restored soon, it will have devastating consequences for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, officials warned on Wednesday.

“The decision to stop funding UNRWA constitutes a collective punishment for every Palestinian inside Palestine and in the diaspora countries, especially in Lebanon,” Lebanese Member of Parliament Fadi Alame told reporters Wednesday after touring the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon with an UNRWA delegation.

Some 250,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon depend on UNRWA for services including healthcare, schooling and cash assistance for the poorest families.

Last month, Israel alleged that 12 UNRWA employees took part in the Oct. 7 attack, prompting the United States and other donors to suspend funding. UNRWA immediately fired the 10 surviving employees and has launched investigations. The agency says if funding is not restored, it will have to halt operations in April.

Dorothee Klaus, UNRWA’s director in Lebanon, said that a halt to the agency’s services would have “security and stability” as well as “humanitarian” consequences.

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Tom Barrack: There Is One Syria

Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack at the People's Palace in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack at the People's Palace in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
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Tom Barrack: There Is One Syria

Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack at the People's Palace in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack at the People's Palace in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack described on Saturday the lifting of US sanctions on Syria as a “strategic fresh start” for the war-ravaged nation and said that the US was not intending to pursue “nation-building or federalism.”

The Syrian state news agency, SANA, quoted Barrack as telling the Arab News website, that the Trump administration’s removal of sanctions on May 13 was aimed at offering the Syrian people “a new slice of hope” following over a decade of civil war.

He described the Middle East as a “difficult zip code at an amazingly historic time.”

“President (Trump)’s message is peace and prosperity,” Barrack said, adding that “sanctions gave the people hope. That’s really all that happened at that moment.”

He noted that the US policy shift is intended to give the emerging Syrian regime a chance to rebuild.

The envoy clarified that the original US involvement in Syria was driven by counter-ISIS operations, and not aimed at regime change or humanitarian intervention.

He reaffirmed Washington’s position against a federal model for Syria, saying the country must remain unified with a single army and government.

“There’s not going to be six countries. There’s going to be one Syria,” he said, ruling out the possibility of separate autonomous regions.

Barrack added: “The US is not dictating terms but would not support a separatist outcome: We’re not going to be there forever as the babysitter.”

Last Wednesday, the Syrian government welcomed any path with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that would enhance the unity and territorial integrity of the country, reiterating its unwavering commitment to the principle of “One Syria, One Army, One Government,” and its categorical rejection of any form of partition or federalism.

Barrack confirmed that the US is closely monitoring the announcement that the first group of PKK fighters had destroyed their weapons in northern Iraq.

“This could be the first step towards long-term resolution of the Kurdish issue in Türkiye,” he said, but cautioned that questions remain about the SDF’s ongoing ties to the PKK leadership. “They (the SDF) have to decide: Are they Syrians? Are they Kurds first? That’s their issue.”

The envoy stressed that the current US strategy offers a narrow but real chance at stability.