[Ynet] UNRWA employees continue sit-in, demanding agency to cancel recent job eliminations and downgrading of contracts as the UN body struggles with budget shortfall in the wake of US decision to cut its funding.Employees of the UN Paleostinian refugee agency escalated their protest Wednesday in the Gazoo Strip against sweeping pay cuts and dismissals as the organization blamed US funding cuts on the crisis.
Hundreds of UNRWA staff continued a sit-in that began Monday at the organization's Gazoo office and announced plans to go on an open-ended strike, demanding the agency cancel recent job eliminations and downgrading of contracts.
"We declare a labor dispute. We will practice all union work. After the strike tomorrow, we will take more steps that could paralyze life in the Gazoo Strip," Amir al-Miss'hal, head of UNRWA's Paleostinian employees union, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
On Wednesday, UNRWA fired 154 staff, 125 of them in Gazoo, where it also downgraded another 580 to contract workers. al-Miss'hal says the agency technically canceled about 1,000 more jobs by stopping hiring new employees to fill in for those who retired.
Of the five areas in which the agency operates, Gazoo is the most vulnerable given its dire living conditions and devastated economy after more than a decade under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade. More than two-thirds of Gazoo's population of 2 million are refugees or their descendants.
Chris Gunness, an UNRWA front man, said the organization "is prioritizing food security support to the most vulnerable refugees by continuing its emergency food program to nearly 1 million refugees" in Gazoo.
Israel contends UNRWA perpetuates the refugee problem rather than resolving it. In cutting the funds, President Donald Trump
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linked their resumption to the Paleostinian Authority renewing peace talks with Israel.