After the Office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Lebanon announced that the agency does not have an "alternative plan" for after March if donor countries insist on suspending funding, a state of caution and anticipation has prevailed among Palestinian refugees, fearing the interruption of educational, monetary, and health services. In a report prepared by the "Waradna" website about the consequences of funding cessation on these refugees, UNRWA's media officer in Lebanon, Fadi Al-Tayyar, revealed that approximately 250,000 refugees rely primarily on the services provided by the agency, pointing out that "cutting funding will jeopardize the future of more than 38,000 students in schools and the future of 2,000 students receiving vocational and technical education."
During a tour by the "Waradna" camera team inside some Palestinian camps in Lebanon, refugees expressed their fears about the possibility of aid being cut off. It is worth noting that Israel has accused 12 of UNRWA's 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) attack on Israel on October 7. These statements came after years of Israeli calls for the agency's dissolution, at a time when residents of the Gaza Strip are facing widespread hunger, with only a small amount of aid reaching the area. Sixteen countries have suspended funding pending the results of an investigation by the United Nations oversight office. UNRWA's director of affairs in Lebanon, Dorothy Klaus, stated that the results will be ready in a few weeks.
