UNRWA reduces West Bank school week as funding crisis deepens

RAMALLAH – The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has announced a temporary reduction in school operations in the occupied West Bank, cutting the school week from five days to four as it grapples with a severe financial shortfall.

The decision, confirmed on Sunday, forms part of wider austerity measures affecting all five of the agency’s fields of operation, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, aimed at maintaining essential services for millions of registered Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA said the reduction in school days is accompanied by a 20 percent cut in staff working hours, including in the education sector, as it seeks to preserve a minimum level of continuity in its services. The measures are set to remain in place until the end of the year.

The agency stressed that the steps are temporary and necessary to prevent a complete disruption of its humanitarian and educational operations amid an acute funding crisis.

Earlier this month, UNRWA communications director Jonathan Fowler said political and financial pressures had already forced a 20 percent reduction in services, warning of a worsening funding gap that threatens the agency’s ability to operate at scale.

UNRWA, established in 1949 by a UN General Assembly mandate, provides education, healthcare, food assistance and shelter to Palestinian refugees across the region. It relies almost entirely on voluntary contributions from UN member states.

The agency has faced sustained financial instability in recent years, exacerbated by donor uncertainty and political controversy. Israel has repeatedly alleged that UNRWA staff were involved in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, accusations the agency denies. The United Nations has reaffirmed UNRWA’s neutrality and said investigations into misconduct allegations are ongoing.

Following the outbreak of war in Gaza, several donor countries suspended or delayed funding, intensifying the agency’s financial strain and forcing cuts to staffing and services.

In the occupied West Bank, UNRWA runs dozens of schools serving tens of thousands of pupils. The agency has warned that repeated disruptions to education risk undermining long-term social and economic prospects for Palestinian students, particularly in already fragile areas affected by unemployment, mobility restrictions and periodic violence.

Officials say the current austerity measures are designed to ensure that core services remain operational, but caution that without renewed and sustained funding, further reductions could not be ruled out.

The latest cutbacks underscore the broader vulnerability of UNRWA’s operations at a time of heightened regional instability and deepening humanitarian needs across its areas of mandate.