The United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has stated that millions of Palestinians living in horrific conditions require immediate attention, while the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) faces funding difficulties.
Guterres said in a statement issued at a donor conference on Tuesday that UNRWA had been hampered by Israel-imposed restrictions and financial constraints in responding to humanitarian needs in occupied Palestinian territory, including Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
UNRWA also works in East Jerusalem, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, providing humanitarian aid and shelter. 
Approximately 2.6 million people require humanitarian aid, as they continue to lack access to basic needs such as safety, housing, food, safe drinking water, education, and healthcare. There has been no shelter, so many people are staying outside and going to bed hungry.
“Madam President of the General Assembly, Excellencies. As we meet here today, the safety and welfare of millions of Palestine refugees hang in the balance. In Gaza, Israeli attacks have killed more than a thousand Palestinians since – and despite – the ceasefire announced last October. And living conditions are utterly appalling,” he said.
Guterres said there were unexploded ordnance and open sewers, rodent infestations, disease outbreaks, soaring temperatures and widespread displacement. The West Bank sees Palestinians navigating settler violence and settlement expansions.
Palestinian homes are being demolished while their land is taken, according to Guterres, who added that eviction orders, mobility and access limitations, and the growing prospect of annexation ‘would blatantly violate international law’.
UNRWA is struggling to reach Palestinians in need due to US financial cuts. The UN General Assembly’s 1949 resolution creating UNRWA to assist displaced Palestinians at the time of Israel’s establishment compelled operations to be reduced but support will be hard to reach with additional cuts.
Guterres cited “utterly appalling” living conditions in Gaza, aggression by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, and Israeli strikes on Lebanon, where many Palestinian refugees have sought asylum. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon continue to suffer air attacks and evacuation advisories. After 13 years of conflict in Syria, they are still displaced, while others have returned to severely damaged homes. The secretary-general noted, “In Jordan, they live on a tight budget.”
He said Palestine refugees have long counted on UNRWA for registration, emergency assistance, and essential public services and warned of its increasingly precarious situation.
“Despite painful austerity and cost-control measures, a deficit of 100 million US dollars prevents the Agency from meeting its current obligations,” he said.
