Gaza Metropolis — After 18 years as a instructor with an UNRWA-run college, Maryam Shaaban (title modified for security causes) fainted upon studying she was amongst 600 workers dismissed from their posts, the most recent in a barrage of devastating blows borne out of Israel’s genocidal struggle on the besieged enclave.
Earlier in January, the United Nations company for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) introduced a sequence of harsh austerity measures, together with a 20 p.c wage minimize for native employees in Gaza, decreased working hours, and the termination of contracts for workers primarily based exterior Gaza who had been beforehand positioned on “distinctive depart”.
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In response to a letter despatched to affected employees by UNRWA Commissioner-Basic Philippe Lazzarini, the company stated it was compelled to take steps resulting from a extreme monetary shortfall in its 2026 funds of some $220m.
The deficit threatens the company’s capability to fulfill core operational obligations, together with employees salaries and the continuation of important humanitarian programmes.
Shaaban, 52, who’s at present displaced in Egypt along with her injured husband, started working with the UN company in 2007 as a instructor at one of many company’s colleges in Jabalia, northern Gaza.
Like most residents of Gaza, she suffered a heavy value throughout Israel’s genocidal struggle.
She was displaced along with her household from Jabalia to Nuseirat, in central Gaza, the place they took refuge in her brother’s house. In December 2023, they have been hit by a direct Israeli air assault that killed 15 folks and injured dozens.
Among the many victims have been Maryam’s 22-year-old daughter, her brother, and his complete household.
Israeli concentrating on of UNRWA
Sustained Israeli campaigns to decimate and denigrate the company have escalated to unprecedented ranges.
Israel has repeatedly accused the company of being lenient or complicit with Palestinian armed teams, with out offering verifiable proof. These are allegations UNRWA has vehemently denied, stressing that it takes disciplinary motion in opposition to any worker confirmed to be concerned in wrongdoing.
In 2025, the Israeli Knesset handed laws successfully banning the company’s operations in areas it considers a part of “Israeli sovereignty”, together with occupied East Jerusalem, claiming the company poses a safety menace.
The company rejected the regulation as unlawful and stated it locations it in direct confrontation with Israeli authorities.
As of this month, the UN company has recorded deaths in Israeli assaults of greater than 380 of its employees members in Gaza since October 2023.
Earlier this month, Israel despatched in bulldozers, partially destroying UNRWA’s headquarters in East Jerusalem. Israeli lawmakers and members of the far-right authorities have been additionally current, in response to Lazzarini, who stated the assault got here “within the wake of different steps taken by Israeli authorities to erase the Palestine Refugee identification”.
As a UN company, it enjoys worldwide authorized standing. UN Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in January that he may take Israel to the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) if it doesn’t repeal laws targeting UNRWA and return its seized belongings and property.
‘By what regulation does this occur?’
Maryam herself sustained minor accidents within the Israeli assault, whereas 5 of her kids additionally suffered accidents. Her husband was critically wounded within the neck.
In April 2024, she left Gaza as a medical companion to her partner, who was referred for therapy at an Egyptian hospital. She was compelled to depart behind the remainder of her kids in Gaza, together with those that have been wounded.
“It appears like leaving for therapy and escaping demise has turn into a criminal offense we’re being punished for,” Maryam advised Al Jazeera by cellphone, her voice breaking with tears.
“Wasn’t it sufficient that I spent all this time grieving for my injured kids, being away from them and consistently nervous about them whereas accompanying my husband in therapy? They added to our wounds by dismissing us from our jobs. By what regulation does this occur?”
For Maryam and lots of others who have been displaced exterior Gaza throughout the struggle, the blow was particularly extreme, because it adopted a February 2025 choice to position them on “distinctive depart” even though lots of them continued instructing remotely.
“All my kids are injured and have steel plates of their limbs. They suffered immensely after my wage stopped,” stated the mom of eight.
Up to now two weeks, the disaster has prolonged to workers who stay within the Strip, after the company determined to chop their salaries by 20 p.c, a transfer that has additional deepened their humanitarian struggling amid Gaza’s catastrophic circumstances.
The monetary shortfall comes amid a decline in worldwide donations, which had lengthy fashioned the spine of UNRWA’s funds, notably after a number of donor states froze their contributions following Israeli allegations in opposition to a few of its workers.
UNRWA supplies important companies to thousands and thousands of Palestinian refugees, who make up about 70 p.c of the Gaza inhabitants, together with schooling, healthcare, and social help, enjoying a central position in sustaining a minimal stage of stability amid repeated Israeli wars and restrictions on crossings.
Why Gaza first?
There was widespread anger and protests amongst UNRWA employees in Gaza, each inside and outdoors the Strip, who argue that the measures disproportionately goal Gaza in contrast with the company’s different 5 areas of operation: the occupied West Financial institution, Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
Mustafa al-Ghoul, head of the UNRWA employees union in Gaza and a dentist who has labored with the company for 29 years, questioned why Gaza — probably the most devastated and space — was chosen as the primary sacrifice.
“All of the measures began in Gaza, as if Gaza will not be already overwhelmed by demise, destruction, and starvation,” he advised Al Jazeera, standing in entrance of their partially destroyed headquarters in Gaza Metropolis.
Of among the 600 dismissed Palestinian workers who have been exterior Gaza, the chopping off of their salaries and financial savings with out prior discover, al-Ghoul stated, “Some are sick. Some have most cancers. Some have been on official depart. Some misplaced their complete households. Some left to deal with a grandchild, after which they’re punished with dismissal and deprivation of their rights.”
“Gaza wants somebody to heal its wounds. Gaza is dying. You see tents, demise, and destruction all over the place. Gaza wants compassion, not dismissals and the drying up of its lifelines,” al-Ghoul appealed to UNRWA’s management.
‘UNRWA was the spine of our survival’
Union warnings concerning the penalties of UNRWA cuts are already seen within the scarred each day lives of displaced Palestinians in Gaza, notably in schooling, healthcare and meals safety.
This decline is mirrored within the testimony of Jihan al-Harazin, 28, a mom of three, displaced in Gaza Metropolis, whose household relied virtually completely on the company’s companies.
“UNRWA was the spine of our survival, in well being, schooling, and meals. It offered the whole lot,” she advised Al Jazeera.
That actuality, nonetheless, has modified dramatically for the reason that struggle started.
“Now, there may be nothing,” Jihan stated, referring to the meals support that UNRWA has not been in a position to distribute for months.
Since October 2023, all humanitarian companies, notably the UN egency, have confronted persistent obstacles in delivering support to Gaza.
On a number of events, Lazzarini accused Israel of utilizing humanitarian support as a political software. He stated Israel is utilizing support to Gaza “as a weapon” to deepen civilian struggling.
‘A struggle waged on humanitarian work’ in Gaza
Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Community (PNGO) in Gaza, advised Al Jazeera that UNRWA represents “the spine of humanitarian work within the Palestinian territory”, stressing that its position extends past companies to the political core of the refugee situation as one of many final pillars of humanitarian and social stability in Gaza.
“UNRWA carries a central trigger for our folks, the refugee trigger itself. It was established by a UN Basic Meeting decision and has operated for many years,” he stated.
Al-Shawa stated the company is going through “steady Israeli incitement” alongside Israeli bans on its operations within the occupied Palestinian territory, notably Gaza, and the obstruction of humanitarian support.
He warned that weakening UNRWA serves Israel’s agenda to erase the Palestinians’ proper of return and compensation. That has been a key aim of the successive Israeli governments.
Linking the company’s cuts to a broader marketing campaign in opposition to humanitarian work in Gaza, al-Shawa famous Israel has confronted global condemnation after a ban on dozens of worldwide support organisations working to offer life-saving help to Palestinians within the war-ravaged Gaza Strip got here into impact.
“There’s a struggle being waged in opposition to humanitarian work, together with UNRWA, and we’re paying the value for our dedication to worldwide humanitarian regulation, a regulation the Israeli occupation refuses to uphold.”
