UN Palestinian refugee agency to halt operations in weeks amid funding cuts

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned Thursday that it will halt its operations within weeks if international funding remains suspended.

"Our operations are likely to come to an end in the next few weeks if funding remains suspended," UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma told Al-Jazeera television.

Several countries have suspended UNRWA funding after Israel alleged that some of the agency's employees were involved in the Hamas cross-border attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

The UN agency, which was established in 1949 to help Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, has said that it is investigating these allegations.

"More food supplies are needed to avert famine in Gaza and these supplies are with UNRWA," Touma said.

"Without UNRWA, there's no supplies, there's no convoys," she warned.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on Gaza following an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, killing at least 27,840 Palestinians and injuring 67,317 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza's population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.