---
title: "UN Chief Warns for Millions of Palestinians as UNRWA Faces a $100 Million Shortfall"
description: "The United Nations' relief agency for Palestinians is being pushed toward the brink, Secretary-General António Guterres warned at a donor conference, as a record funding shortfall and Israeli operating restrictions threaten services that millions of Palestinian refugees rely on."
category: "World"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/world
author: "Elias Rosen"
published: 2026-07-01T03:48:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-01T03:48:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/un-chief-warns-for-millions-of-palestinians-as-unrwa-faces-a-100-million-shortfa
tags: ["United Nations", "UNRWA", "Palestinians", "Gaza", "humanitarian", "Guterres", "Middle East"]
---
# UN Chief Warns for Millions of Palestinians as UNRWA Faces a $100 Million Shortfall

The United Nations' relief agency for Palestinians is being pushed toward the brink, Secretary-General António Guterres warned at a donor conference, as a record funding shortfall and Israeli operating restrictions threaten services that millions of Palestinian refugees rely on.

The head of the United Nations put a stark warning to the agency's donors: the money is running out, and millions of people depend on it.

## The warning

Speaking at a donor conference, Secretary-General António Guterres said "the safety and welfare of millions of Palestine refugees hangs in the balance" and urged member states to close a record funding gap facing the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, [UN News reported](https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/06/1167845). He called the agency "a stabilising force in an age of instability" and warned that further cuts could push conditions "beyond breaking point."

## The shortfall

UNRWA, created in 1949, provides schooling, health care, food and other aid to nearly six million registered Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It is confronting what UN officials describe as a record shortfall of about $100 million that has forced it to cut service hours, leave staff positions vacant and reduce local salaries, per UN News. The strain deepened after the United States — long the agency's largest donor — suspended contributions in 2024 following Israeli allegations that some UNRWA staff took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack; a UN investigation later found that a number of the staff it examined may have been involved. Most other donors that had paused funding resumed it.

## Israel's ban, and the dispute

Compounding the crisis, Israel's parliament passed laws barring UNRWA from operating on Israeli soil and cutting official contacts with it; the measures took effect in 2025 and were later expanded. Israel argues the agency has institutional ties to Hamas — which it designates a terrorist organization — and calls UNRWA biased; UNRWA and the broader UN reject those characterizations, [Al Jazeera reported](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/1/un-chief-fears-for-millions-of-palestinians-amid-unrwa-funding-shortfall). UN humanitarian officials say the restrictions have blocked the agency from bringing aid and personnel into Gaza through Israeli-controlled crossings, leaving stockpiles inaccessible. The Herald is attributing each side's position to its source; the allegations and denials remain contested.

## Conditions in Gaza

Guterres described conditions in Gaza as "utterly appalling," citing mass displacement, disease and food insecurity, with a large majority of the territory's roughly 2.3 million residents displaced. A ceasefire announced in late 2025 has been fragile, with UN monitors documenting continued casualties since; the overall death toll in Gaza since October 2023, as reported by the territory's health ministry, exceeds 70,000, a figure the Herald notes has not been independently verified. UNRWA says hundreds of its own staff have been killed during the war. For the agency, Guterres said, the immediate task is survival: without urgent funding, he warned, "UNRWA cannot keep going like this."

## Sources

- [UN chief fears for millions of Palestinians amid the UNRWA funding shortfall](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/1/un-chief-fears-for-millions-of-palestinians-amid-unrwa-funding-shortfall)
- [Despite a record $100 million shortfall, the Palestine relief agency remains 'a critical platform'](https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/06/1167845)