Funding is vital for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which is no longer receiving US support, its commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini has said.
The operations of the agency that supports millions of Palestinians can suffer further without a cash flow, Mr Lazzarini said. Its mandate and operations are essential for a political solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict, he added.
"We run week by week, month by month. I know that as of today, we will be able to process our salaries in November, but have no idea if or no visibility if we will be able to process our salaries in December," Mr Lazzarini said during a press conference on Thursday.
Israel has banned UNRWA from operating on its soil after accusing some of its employees of participating in the October 2023 attack by Hamas, which triggered the bloody conflict in Gaza. After those allegations, the US, historically the agency's biggest donor, suspended its support.
In the wake of Israel's decision, UNRWA was forced to repatriate its international staff from Gaza and the occupied West Bank, limiting its food aid distribution abilities. But it still employs 12,000 people in the Palestinian territories and its services are vital, Mr Lazzarini said.
"About 75,000 people were sheltered in 100 of our premises across the Gaza Strip," he said at the UN headquarters in New York. "We have, over the past two years, provided more than 15 million primary health consultations. Today, the average is about 14,000 a day."
He also noted the agency's joint vaccination campaign with Unicef and the World Health Organisation.
In another development, Mr Lazzarini said he informed "the UN General Assembly that safeguarding UNRWA’s mandate and operations is vital to the survival of millions of Palestinians, essential for a much-needed political solution".
"I highlighted latest attempts of continuing disinformation attacks that aim to discredit and dismantle the agency," he added.
UNRWA predicts that its budget shortfall between the last quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026 will be about $200 million.
"Unlike in previous years, the projected income in the first quarter of 2026 is too low to absorb a large deficit from 2025," Mr Lazzarini said. "In the absence of a significant influx of new funding, the delivery of critical services to millions of Palestine refugees across the region will be compromised."
