UNRWA pulls some staff from Gaza amid threats

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) made the decision to "temporarily withdraw... following a series of worrying security incidents affecting its personnel in the Strip," a statement from the agency said in announcing the withdrawal.

A car in Gaza with UNRWA personnel was surrounded by an angry mob and stuck for an hour, a UN official told CNN. No one was injured, but the incident prompted the agency to withdraw non-essential staff.

Nine people were removed from Gaza and sent to work from the agency's office in Jerusalem, leaving behind a small number of international staff leadership, including the director of operations. The staff members who stayed have begun operating from an alternate location, a senior UN official told CNN.

The withdrawal took place during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, a time when the border crossing between Israel and Gaza is closed.

The crossing was opened especially to allow the UNRWA employees to leave, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

The IDF said in a statement to CNN, "The evacuation was carried out in light of the tension in the Strip that has been caused by UNRWA's financial crisis, and out of fear for the safety of international workers."

UNRWA has faced months of protests since the agency announced that it would need to eliminate some positions in Gaza and scale back the hours of hundreds of staff members, following the Trump administration's decision, in August, to cut funding for the agency. In 2017, the US contributed more than $364 million to the agency.

The US State Department, at the time, called the UNRWA, "irredeemably flawed," pointing to US contributions to UNRWA, which far outstrip countries in the region.

In July, an improvised explosive device was detonated inside an UNRWA compound in Gaza during a protest, damaging property.

Protesters have also threatened UNRWA staff and burned effigies of the agency's leadership, the agency said in July, forcing it to declare that some of the compounds were unsafe to use and the protests were "beyond our control."

"UNRWA calls upon the local authorities in Gaza to respond to its repeated demands to provide effective protection to its employees and facilities," UNRWA said in response to the most recent protests.

"The lack of effective security and safety risk impacting vital humanitarian services to more than 1.3 million refugees in Gaza."

Describing the threats, a senior UN official told CNN that protesters were "harassing and preventing staff from carrying out their duties in the mistaken belief that it will change decisions UNRWA has made."

These decisions, the senior official said were to "prioritize food distribution, mental health support and cash-for-work opportunities for the 1.3 million refugees in Gaza" over jobs.

Eyad al-Bozom, a spokesman for Hamas, the jihadist organization that runs Gaza, said: "The protection measures did not change, but due to the recent job reductions in the Gaza Strip there has been anger among the employees. We will not let these protests develop and we will not allow any attacks against employees or facilities."

UNRWA faced an unprecedented budget shortfall after the Trump administration cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

The US has been the agency's largest benefactor, putting in about a third of UNRWA's $1.1 billion in contributions in 2017.

In January 2018, the agency, which serves 5.3 million Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, faced a shortfall of $446 million.

During the UN General Assembly, held last week in New York, countries pledged an additional $122 million to support UNRWA.

Combined with other earlier donations, UNRWA's budget shortfall currently stands at $64 million.

UNRWA facilities in Gaza, including 252 schools serving 240,000 students, don't have enough funding to continue through the end of the year.

The World Bank warned in a recent report that the Gaza economy is collapsing, with a poverty rate above 50% and an unemployment rate above 70%.

"A combination of war, isolation and internal division has left Gaza in a crippling economic state and exacerbated the human distress," said Marina Wes, World Bank country director for the West Bank and Gaza.