RIYADH — Saudi Arabia, represented by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief), pledged to provide $40 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to support the UN agency to continue relief work in the besieged Gaza Strip. The KSrelief announced this in a statement issued on Wednesday. The Saudi support would be a big boost to the UN relief agency in overcoming its deep cash crunch in carrying out its relief work in Gaza. This great Saudi humanitarian gesture comes at a time when UNRWA is facing a severe funding crisis after the United States of America and Britain stopped their support in the wake of Israeli accusations that 12 of the agency's 13,000 employees in Gaza took part in the Hamas attack on October 7. UNRWA supervises shelter centers and provides food and healthcare to the people in Gaza, according to its website. The UNRWA said last month that the cash crunch it will face in March will get far worse in April if it cannot secure fresh funding or convince donors to resume suspended contributions. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini urged countries that have suspended funding to urgently rescind that decision and resume and expand their support. "Our operation will start to be compromised as from March but April will be really the month where we will be under deep, deep, deep negative cash flow," Lazzarini told a news conference in February, describing the agency as being under an "existential threat". Meanwhile, a UN-backed report warned on Monday that northern Gaza faces imminent famine as global pressure mounts on Israel to allow access to more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, which has a population of 2.3 million people. Canada, Australia, and Sweden have recently resumed their funding for UNRWA, and a number of Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, have also increased funding for the UN relief agency. But this may not be enough to meet the huge funding to support the Palestinians in Gaza, according to UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai. "The United States is our largest donor, and therefore any amount of compensation provided by other donors, no matter how generous, will not actually fill the gap left by the United States," she said. Last October, Saudi Arabia announced contributions amounting to $2 million to UNRWA and KSrelief also provided $15 million to the agency in November.
