U.N. Palestinian refugee agency appeals for $1.6 billion in funding

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Amman

Tue, January 24, 2023 

GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. agency that delivers basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees appealed on Tuesday for $1.6 billion in funding after its head warned it was struggling to fulfil its mandate due to spiralling costs and shrinking resources.

Established in 1949 following the first Arab-Israeli war, UNRWA provides public services including schools, primary healthcare and humanitarian aid in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

"Compounding challenges over the last year including underfunding, competing global crises, inflation, disruption in the supply chain, geopolitical dynamics and skyrocketing levels of poverty and unemployment among Palestine refugees have put immense strain on UNRWA," the agency said in a statement.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told Reuters in November that the agency's financial woes could result in it no longer being able to fulfil its mandate, which last month was renewed by the U.N. for another three years.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, editing by Ed Osmond)