Earlier in January, UNRWA said it was laying off about 600 employees, cutting salaries for remaining local staff in Gaza by 20%, and reducing working hours, citing an acute budget shortfall amid mounting operational pressure.

The decision follows what the agency and aid officials describe as sustained Israeli regime actions that have crippled humanitarian operations in the besieged enclave since October 2023.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a letter to staff that the agency faces a projected $220 million deficit in its 2026 budget, threatening its ability to pay salaries and maintain essential services.

The shortfall, he said, has forced “austerity measures that no humanitarian organization should be taking in the middle of a catastrophe.”

For affected staff, the impact has been devastating.

After 18 years as a teacher in an UNRWA-run school, Maryam Shaaban, whose name has been changed for safety reasons, fainted when she learned she was among those dismissed.

Her dismissal came after she survived an Israeli air attack that killed members of her family and injured her husband and children.

She was displaced from Jabalia to Nuseirat, where a December 2023 Israeli strike killed 15 people, including her 22-year-old daughter, her brother and his family.

Maryam herself was injured, while her husband suffered critical neck wounds.

In April 2024, she left Gaza to accompany him for treatment in Egypt, leaving behind wounded children.

“It feels like leaving for treatment and escaping death has become a crime we are being punished for,” Maryam told Al Jazeera by phone.

“Wasn’t it enough that I spent all this time grieving for my injured children, being away from them and constantly worried about them while accompanying my husband in treatment?”

“They added to our wounds by dismissing us from our jobs. By what law does this happen?”

Against this backdrop, UNRWA has accused the Israeli regime of systematically targeting the agency.

Israel has repeatedly alleged that UNRWA staff were linked to Palestinian armed groups, accusations the agency has denied, saying it disciplines any employee proven to have engaged in wrongdoing.

In 2025, Israel’s Knesset passed legislation banning UNRWA operations in areas it claims as “Israeli sovereignty,” including occupied East Jerusalem.

UNRWA rejected the law as illegal and said it violates its international mandate.

As of this month, the agency says more than 380 of its staff have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 2023.

Earlier this month, Israeli bulldozers partially destroyed UNRWA’s East Jerusalem headquarters.

Lazzarini said the move came “in the wake of other steps taken by Israeli authorities to erase the Palestine Refugee identity.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel could face action at the International Court of Justice if it does not reverse measures against the agency.

Meanwhile, anger is growing among UNRWA staff over what they say is the disproportionate targeting of Gaza.

“All the measures started in Gaza, as if Gaza is not already overwhelmed by death, destruction, and hunger,” Mustafa al-Ghoul, head of the UNRWA staff union in Gaza, told Al Jazeera.

“Gaza needs compassion, not dismissals and the drying up of its lifelines.”

For Gaza’s civilians, the effects are already visible.

“UNRWA was the backbone of our survival, in health, education, and food. It provided everything,” said Jihan al-Harazin, a displaced mother of three in Gaza City.

“Now, there is nothing.”

Aid officials say Israeli regime restrictions have repeatedly blocked humanitarian deliveries, turning assistance into, as Lazzarini has said, “a weapon” of war.

“There is a war being waged against humanitarian work, including UNRWA,” Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, said.

“And we are paying the price for our commitment to international humanitarian law, a law the Israeli occupation refuses to uphold.”