UN agency for Palestinians says school closures loom

The UN agency helping Palestinian refugees says a $101 million funding gap could keep 500,000 Palestinian students out of school this fall.

The deputy chief of the UN Relief and Works Agency, Sandra Mitchell, said Monday that “if funding does not arrive” this month, the agency could delay the start of the school year.

The agency helps five million Palestinian refugees and their descendants in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. It operates 700 schools.

The budget shortfall comes at a time of rising Palestinian needs after last year’s Gaza war and competition over aid following the Syria conflict that has displaced millions.

Jordan’s education minister said Sunday that Jordan can’t absorb students from the UN system because its schools are full after taking in 130,000 Syrians.

Last month, the special coordinator for the Palestinian peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, warned the UN Security Council that UNRWA has a $100 million shortfall that needs to be solved in the coming weeks.

Otherwise, he said, “there is a serious risk that UNRWA schools, which educate 500,000 children throughout the Middle East, will not open.”

The UN then issued an urgent appeal for contributions last week to prevent such a cutback, but to no avail.

AFP contributed to this report.