Date: 12 August 2025
He called on donors to cover the financial deficit in its program budget and to respond urgently to emergency appeals
• Rejected the administrative measures taken by UNRWA in Lebanon to address its financial crisis and warned of the collapse of the protection system
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Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Head of the Refugee Affairs Department, Dr. Ahmed Abu Huli, met with UNRWA Director of Operations in Lebanon, Dorothy Klaus, to discuss developments in the financial crisis facing UNRWA, the operational challenges resulting from it, and its impact on emergency interventions to meet the humanitarian needs of refugees. The meeting also addressed the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanese camps and Palestinian refugees displaced from Syria to Lebanon.
During the meeting, which was held today, Tuesday, at UNRWA’s headquarters in the Lebanese capital Beirut, Abu Huli stressed the importance of the Agency’s continued work in providing services to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, especially in the difficult living conditions they face, as part of the international community’s commitment to Palestinian refugees in line with the mandate granted to the Agency.
Abu Huli described the conditions of refugees in Palestinian camps in Lebanon as difficult and dangerous, given the high poverty and unemployment rates, which have reached 85%, along with shortages in health and relief services and the lack of job opportunities. He called on UNRWA to increase and improve its food and cash assistance to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon in order to meet their basic needs for a dignified life.
He rejected UNRWA’s decision to stop the cash assistance it had recently approved for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and those displaced from Syria, or to reduce the number of beneficiaries or the value of the cash assistance due to the lack of funds needed to cover it. He urged UNRWA to mobilize efforts at all levels to secure the necessary funding and to continue providing its essential and emergency services without cuts.
Abu Huli added:
“Given the very high poverty rates, 80% of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are unable to afford the costs of private sector health services. This has a greater impact on 50,000 Palestinian refugees who depend on UNRWA’s hospital referrals, including 600 cancer patients whose lives are now at risk due to their inability to afford essential medicines, especially since the public health sector is not accessible to Palestinian refugees.”
He urged UNRWA in Lebanon to reconsider some measures taken by its administration without taking into account the surrounding circumstances of the refugee community in Lebanon regarding health and hospitalization services. He called for a return to the 2015 hospitalization and medical care system, the continuation of providing hospitalization services to refugees in Lebanon without imposing any additional financial burdens on them, increasing coverage rates for medical cases, and expanding contracts with both public and private hospitals.
He also called on donors to respond urgently to UNRWA’s emergency appeals and to quickly fulfill their financial pledges to support the Agency’s regular budget to cover the funding gap, which remains an obstacle to UNRWA’s work and threatens the collapse of the protection system.
For her part, Dorothy Klaus welcomed the decree issued by President Mahmoud Abbas to restructure the Palestinian Popular Committees in Lebanon.
Klaus highlighted the seriousness of the financial situation facing UNRWA and its impact on the services provided to Palestinian refugees. She noted that her administration is making intensive efforts to stabilize the Agency’s budget for the current year in order to continue its essential services, including education, health, and other vital programs.
She stressed that if the current funding gap is not bridged, the continuity of UNRWA’s essential services in the five fields of operation — including in Lebanon — will be at risk. Any disruption of these services would have severe consequences for Palestine refugees, especially in Lebanon, where needs are dire and UNRWA is the sole provider of services.
Regarding Palestine School in Tyre, Klaus stated that the current temporary arrangements will remain in place until a solution is found, and that UNRWA is actively working to secure one.
She emphasized the importance of strengthening cooperation between the Refugee Affairs Department, UNRWA, and the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee directly, to advance humanitarian, social, and health issues. She also expressed readiness to cooperate with the Refugee Affairs Department to find solutions to the problems facing UNRWA and its financial crisis, enabling the Agency to continue its vital humanitarian role.
The meeting was attended, on behalf of the Refugee Affairs Department, by Head of the UNRWA Section in Lebanon Ferial Al-Moussa and Head of the Media Section Ranim Zaiter, and on behalf of UNRWA by translator Huda Al-Samra.
