UNRWA staff in West Bank end 18-day salary strike

West Bank staff at the UN agency for the Palestinians, UNRWA, end an 18-day strike that demanded higher wages for employees.

UNRWA says a “technical committee” is meeting with the West Bank’s Area Staff Union to resolve the dispute. The UN agency does not say if it raised salaries for employees.

UNRWA thanks the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization for helping “resolve a situation that was severely impacting the access of Palestine refugees to critical services.” The PLO is designated as a terror group by the US and Israel.

The UN agency said last month that the strike had shut down services including health care, education and sanitation.

The union initiated the strike “in reaction to the lack of response by the UNRWA management to a requested salary increase in the face of high cost of living,” UNRWA said.

Salaries for UNRWA employees were equivalent or higher than the pay for comparable positions with the Palestinian Authority, the agency said.

UNRWA’s West Bank director had called on the union to end the strike in order to reopen schools for 45,000 students.

Late last month, UNRWA requested $1.6 billion in funding for 2023 operations.