Amid deepening financial crisis, UNRWA conducts mass layoffs in Gaza
Mohamed Solaimane reports in Mondoweiss on 3 November 2026:
Shaaban Eid spent 13 years at UNRWA helping Gaza’s refugees start small businesses. In mid-September, the agency ended his contract, along with 42 colleagues in its microfinance department.
“I’m broke after the agency fired the bullet of execution at us,” said Eid, 45, a father of four. “I used to make it easier for people to start their projects and help them. Now I have nothing, and I’m looking for someone to help me. Imagine being an employee and then finding yourself in the street.”
Eid is among hundreds of UNRWA employees in Gaza who have already been dismissed, and more are expected to follow.
The agency’s acting Commissioner-General, Christian F. Saunders, told the staff union earlier in October that he intends to end the services of thousands across the agency’s areas of operation, citing a $70 million deficit. Employees, union officials and former agency staff reject that explanation.
For them, the layoffs strike at the institution established under UN Resolution 302 of 1949 to serve Palestinians driven from their homes in the Nakba, an agency that Palestinian refugees see as a standing witness to that expulsion and to their right to return to land that is now inside Israel and has been operating in Gaza since May 1950.
The cuts come as the Board of Peace, the U.S.-led body chaired by Donald Trump and endorsed by the UN Security Council to oversee Gaza’s post-war governance and reconstruction, prepares to take charge of the Strip’s future. The Board has made its position on the agency plain. In one statement on X, it said UNRWA has “no place in New Gaza.” In another, it said its policy on the agency’s involvement in Gaza “has not changed,” that it will work only with “trusted partners,” and that UNRWA does not meet its standards.
‘Imagine finding yourself in the street‘
Eid, 45, joined UNRWA in 2013. After he was let go, he expected to at least receive severance for his years of service. But his end-of-service payment never reached him. The bank seized it to settle the loan he had taken out years ago to build his apartment. A father of four, he had no income besides his monthly salary.
“I was a loan officer. I made it easier for people to start their projects and helped them,” he said. “Now I have nothing, and I’m looking for someone to help me, but because of the war there is no one. My life suddenly became hell without warning. Imagine being an employee and then finding yourself in the street.”