Funding woesUNRWA has struggled to meet funding requirements in recent years.The agency’s chronic budget shortfalls worsened dramatically in 2018 when former US president Donald Trump cut support to the agency.The Trump administration branded UNRWA “irredeemably flawed”, siding with Israeli criticisms of the agency founded in 1949, a year after Israel’s creation.But US President Joe Biden’s administration has fully restored support, providing $340 million in 2022, making it the agency’s largest donor.The unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack resulted in the death of around 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives.At least 26,083 Palestinians, around 70 percent of them women, young children and adolescents, have been killed in the Gaza Strip in Israeli bombardments and ground offensive since then, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry.
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