Arab country contributions to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency are down 90% in 2025 compared to 2024, according to Philippe Lazzairini, UNRWA commissioner-general.
“This year, financial contributions from the region amount to just 3% of all contributions received by the agency,” Lazzairini said at a League of Arab States Council meeting on Thursday in Cairo.
In 2018, Arab donors provided about 25% of the U.N. agency’s funding.
“I am convinced that this is not the message the region wants to convey” to those whom the global body considers refugees, Lazzarini said. “Words of solidarity must translate into matching funding to make a tangible difference.”
Lazzarini has said for years that there are funding shortfalls. UNRWA considers Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes during the Arab-initiated wars of 1948 and 1967 and their descendants to be refugees in perpetuity.
Earlier this year, António Guterres, U.N. secretary-general, requested a strategic assessment of UNRWA’s mandate.
An internal U.N. probe found that it was “likely or highly likely” that at least nine UNRWA staffers took part in the Oct. 7 attacks.
Israel says the numbers are higher and that ties between Hamas and UNRWA run much deeper.
Washington suspended UNRWA funding during the investigation and has yet to restore it amid bipartisan congressional approval for maintaining the freeze.
