Gaza staff at UN agency strike over job losses amid US funding cuts

Staff members at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have gone on strike in the besieged Gaza Strip to protest against job losses and US funding cuts. 

Schools, clinics, and food distributions were halted on Monday as UNRWA's 13,000 Palestinian employees in Gaza went on a one-day strike.

The strike closed more than 250 UNRWA schools in Gaza. More than 200,000 Palestinians attend its schools in the coastal enclave.

Amal al-Batsh, deputy head of the UNRWA Employees Union, said in a statement that a protest took place outside the agency's Gaza headquarters.

"The strike comes in light of the (UNRWA) administration's lack of responsiveness to the demands of the employees' union and their insistence on not solving their problems," the statement read.

Separately, UNRWA's spokesman Chris Gunness said the agency regretted the strike. "We regret any action that negatively impacts the services we provide to refugees, particularly in a place like Gaza where after a more than decade of blockade they have suffered enough."

The UN agency has been suffering from a financial crisis which was exacerbated after the administration of US President Donald Trump decided to cut all support.

UNRWA says the funding deficit caused by the Trump administration's withdrawal of support is so severe cuts are unavoidable. More than 250 jobs have been cut in Gaza and the West Bank so far, while hundreds of full-time roles have become part-time.

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In total, 154 employees in the occupied West Bank and 113 in the Gaza Strip will be let go.

The refugee agency's labor union is demanding the job cuts be reversed and its leaders say the strike could be the first of a number of measures.

The UN agency is now working to find new sources of funding to keep the schools and other services functioning.

Palestinian leaders have accused the Trump administration of seeking to "liquidate" their cause. The Palestinians say the Trump administration is trying to force neighboring countries to absorb refugees and remove the sensitive issue from future negotiations.

Trump has formerly complained that Washington received "no appreciation or respect" for the aid it provided to the region.

Trump's recognition of occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's "capital" has already led Palestinian leaders to cut off contact with the White House.

Thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes during the war that led to the creation of the Israeli regime in 1948.

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Palestinian leaders have accused the Trump administration of seeking to "liquidate" their cause.

UNRWA has for decades been providing health care, education and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. An estimated five million refugees and their descendants are currently recognized as eligible for UNRWA services across the region.

The agency has warned the cuts could hurt its operations, including a network of schools that serves over 500,000 students.

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