UNRWA has warned it currently only has the funds to keep its 711 schools open for the next month (AFP Photo/Jaafar ASHTIYEH)

Vienna (AFP) - Germany will provide additional funding for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency and has appealed to other EU members to do the same following a cut in US aid, its foreign ministry said Friday. He told Reuters the “U.S leadership has become an enemy of our people and of our nation and we will not surrender before such unjust decisions.”

Earlier on Friday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Germany would increase its contributions to UNRWA because the funding crisis was fueling uncertainty. Maas did not say how much money Germany would give in addition to 81 million euros it has already provided so far this year, but appealed to the EU to jointly support the agency to make up the deficit. President Donald Trump (Photo: AP)

UNRWA has faced a cash crisis since the United States, long its biggest donor, earlier this year slashed funding, saying the agency needed to make unspecified reforms and calling on the Palestinians to renew peace talks with Israel. In Gaza, Nashat Abu El-Oun, a refugee and father of eight, said: “The situation is bad and it will become worse … People can hardly afford living these days and if they became unable to earn their living they will begin thinking of unlawful things.”

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Friday that UNRWA’s business model and fiscal practices were an “irredeemably flawed operation” and that the agency’s “endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable.”

UNRWA rejected the criticisms, with spokesman Chris Gunness describing it as “a force for regional stability.”

Speaking in Jordan, where more than 2 million registered Palestinian refugees live, including 370,000 in 10 refugee camps, Gunness said: “It is a deeply regrettable decision … some of the most disadvantaged, marginalised and vulnerable people on this planet are likely to suffer.”

US cancels more than US$200 million in aid to Palestinians

Gunness said UNRWA provides health clinics, schooling for 526,000 refugee children across Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and food help to 1.7 million people – a million of them in Gaza.
Ahead of an expected U.S. announcement that it will cut all aid to the UNRWA, which supports more than 5 million registered Palestinian refugees, Germany calls on European Union states to help bridge the expected US$217 million deficit. Yesterday, Jordan made a similar appeal to the Arab League.