Nuseirat Camp (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) demonstrated in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Monday, in protest against job cuts and expected salary cuts for workers at the agency, according to what journalists from Agence France-Presse reported.
Published on: 02/11/2026 - 17:51
Dozens of men, women and children walked through the streets of the camp, heading towards one of the agency’s schools in the Palestinian sector.
UNRWA is one of the largest service providers in the Palestinian territories, providing health care and education, in addition to crucial coordination of humanitarian relief efforts since the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023, benefiting from thousands of employees and its logistical networks.
The head of the Arab Employees Union in Gaza, Mustafa al-Ghoul, told AFP that the demonstration aims to "make clear that we oppose the dismissal of any employee, because dismissing employees means ending services to refugees and a decline in the quality of these services."
The demonstrators, including beneficiaries of UNRWA services, marched in the streets carrying banners reading: “No to reducing salaries” and “No to reducing refugee services.”
UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler told AFP, "The agency has been suffering for some time from unprecedented financial and operational difficulties, and there may be a need to make difficult decisions in the near future."
Fowler added that the issue is currently under study, noting that the agency cannot comment in more detail at the present time.
UNRWA currently employs 10,500 people in Gaza and 4,500 in the occupied West Bank.
In September, UNRWA Acting Commissioner-General Christian Saunders warned that it would be forced to reduce long-term services for refugees unless the agency could begin closing a $100 million shortfall over the next two months.
Israel has repeatedly accused UNRWA of covering up for Hamas, and accused a number of its employees of participating in the movement’s attack on the south of the Hebrew State on October 7, 2023, which ignited the war.
Legislation severing ties with the agency and prohibiting its activity in Israeli territory entered into force at the beginning of 2025.
Several investigations, one of which was led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, concluded that there were some “issues related to neutrality” within UNRWA, while stressing that Israel had not provided conclusive evidence to support the accusation it made.
© 2026 AFP
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