A crisis has erupted between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and several Palestinian institutions following a decision by the agency to lay off hundreds of employees and cut the salaries of others.
UNRWA informed its local staff from the Gaza Strip who are currently outside the territory that their employment would be terminated immediately and officially, citing the severe monetary crisis facing the agency.
Employees and organizations monitoring UNRWA’s work circulated a decision signed by Sam Rose, acting director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, announcing the termination of contracts for more than 600 employees under an “exceptional leave” provision in accordance with regulations governing local staff.
The decision stated that UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini had approved the move as formal notice of termination, while pledging to preserve employees’ financial rights through a mechanism yet to be agreed upon.
The decision cited a crippling financial shortfall that has left UNRWA unable to secure sufficient funds to continue paying salaries and meeting its programmatic obligations.
According to Palestinian sources specializing in refugee and UNRWA affairs, the decision affects 622 employees, the majority of them education staff who were forced to leave Gaza with their families because of the war. Most are currently in Egypt.
The Joint Refugee Committee described the move as “arbitrary and inhumane,” saying it constitutes “a direct assault on employees’ dignity and their right to work and live in safety.” It stressed that staff did not leave Gaza by choice, but fled war, bombardment, starvation, and disease, noting that many are ill or caring for sick relatives.
The committee held Lazzarini fully responsible for the decision, which comes near the end of his term, and called for its immediate reversal and the reinstatement of dismissed staff.
The Refugee Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization also rejected the decision, describing it as “a dangerous approach that goes beyond a funding crisis to amount to systematic administrative execution.”
Ahmad Abu Houli, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and head of the Refugee Affairs Department, said the 20 percent salary cuts for Gaza and West Bank staff, the termination of contracts for 570 Gaza employees abroad, and the replacement of UNRWA guards in Amman with a private security company amounted to “a stab in the back” of employees who had served as a safety valve for the agency and lost 382 colleagues killed under Israeli bombardment.
Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, also condemned the decision, calling it an unjustified escalation that violates employees’ rights and deepens their suffering amid war and siege. Palestinian human rights groups likewise denounced the move as illegal under wartime conditions in Gaza.
