The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees may not be able to open schools for half a million children because it has run out of money since the United States cut its funding, according to U.N. officials.
UNRWA already faces what it described as a "very tense" situation in the Gaza Strip after job cuts drew protests by its own employees, leaving some senior staff unable to work in their offices.
Some fear for the survival of the agency, which this month must decide whether it can open its network of schools across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon in the coming academic year.
"We are running on empty," said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness, who described the situation as "catastrophic" and unprecedented. "We simply don't have enough money to pay 22,000 teachers, who, in 711 schools, provide a daily education for over half a million children."
U.N. officials say that aid cuts by the United States, the single largest donor to UNRWA, were a major cause of the crisis.
In January, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would scale back aid to the Palestinians unless they cooperated with his plans to revive peacemaking with Israel, which stalled in 2014.
"The actions that we are now seeing are consequences of the decision by the Trump administration to withhold $305 million from UNRWA this year, so whether it is political or not, it has catastrophic implications and consequences for us on the ground," Gunness said.
Palestinian families, children and teachers said they were worried about whether schools will open come September.
In the West Bank, Reem Nakhla's children attend an UNRWA school in the Jalazone refugee camp. In June, staff and pupils were thrilled to be visited by Britain's Prince William during his tour of the region. But now, confusion reigns.
"Of course I am worried, I think about where should I send them," said Nakhla. "The UNRWA school is a big help to people," she added. "Our situation in the camp is very difficult."
UNRWA was founded in 1949 in the aftermath of the 1948 War of Independence. That war forced 700,000 Palestinians to leave their homes or flee.
UNRWA now says there are 5.2 million Palestinian refugees, but this is mainly because it labels descendants of Palestinians that were displaced in 1948 as refugees, granting them refugee status even if they are not living as refugees.
A recent American survey found that there were only 20,000 Palestinian refugees living in the world.
Funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from U.N. member states, the United States has long been its largest donor. But officials say that after the Trump administration slashed its contribution, UNRWA now needs more than $200 million from other donors to cover its deficit.
In January, Trump tweeted, "We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don't even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel."
The U.S. State Department has said the agency needed to make unspecified reforms.
Israel has accused UNRWA of favoring Palestinians, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Trump's decision to cut funding. "This is how to rid the world of UNRWA and deal with genuine refugee problems, to the extent that such remain," he said in January.
In Gaza, Amal Al-Batsh, deputy chairman of the union of Palestinian employees at UNRWA, feared that the United States was targeting UNRWA's existence "not as an institution but as a symbol and a witness to the issue of Palestinian refugees."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Western-backed Fatah faction said the Palestinian leader would seek donations for UNRWA at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly meeting in September.
