Gaza City, January 13 (RHC)-- Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip have slammed United Nations cuts to aid and services provided to them.  The majority of Gazans are refugees who were kicked out of their towns and villages upon the establishment of Israeli regime in 1948. 

Palestinian refugees demonstrated in the Gaza Strip against UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees.  They protested the agency’s cuts to vital services, aid and employment. 

The UN agency provides education, health and welfare services to millions of Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem al-Quds, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.  More than 1.3 million Palestinian refugees live in the Gaza Strip and rely on UNRWA aid to survive.

UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly decades ago and mandated to provide assistance to Palestine refugees. According to UNRWA there are over five million registered Palestinian refugees.

The Israeli regime has been campaigning to defund the UN agency in an attempt to end the refugees’ right of return. The crisis worsened after US president Donald Trump decided to cancel funding to UNRWA in 2018.

The crisis of Palestinian refugees began in 1948 upon the creation of the Israeli regime on occupied Palestinian land.  Palestinian refugees say that UNRWA cuts will only increase their suffering after more than seven decades of displacement.