Gaza City— After 18 years as a teacher at an UNRWA school, Mariam Shaaban (whose name has been changed for security reasons) fainted when she learned she was one of 600 employees being fired, the latest in a series of devastating blows to Israel’s genocidal war in the besieged enclave.

In early January, the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced a series of severe austerity measures, including cutting the wages of local staff in Gaza by 20%, reducing working hours, and terminating the contracts of staff outside Gaza who had previously been placed on “special leave.”

According to a letter sent to affected staff by UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, the agency said it was forced to take the measure due to a severe budget shortfall of approximately $220 million for 2026.

The deficit threatens the agency’s ability to meet core operational obligations, including staff salaries and the continuation of essential humanitarian programs.

Shaaban, 52, who is currently displaced in Egypt with her injured husband, began working for the United Nations agency in 2007 as a teacher at a school in Jabaliya, northern Gaza.

Like most residents of Gaza, she has suffered a heavy price in Israel’s genocidal war.

She and her family were displaced from Jabaliya to Nuserat in central Gaza, where they took refuge in her brother’s home. In December 2023, they were hit by a direct Israeli air strike, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more.

The victims included Maryam’s 22-year-old daughter, her brother and their entire family.

Israel targets UNRWA

Israel’s ongoing campaign to destroy and defame the institution has escalated to unprecedented levels.

Israel has repeatedly accused the agency of being tolerant of or complicit in Palestinian armed groups, without providing verifiable evidence. UNRWA strongly denies the allegations and stressed that disciplinary action will be taken against any staff found to have been involved in inappropriate conduct.

In 2025, the Knesset passed legislation effectively banning the agency from operating in areas it considers “Israeli sovereignty”, including occupied East Jerusalem, claiming it posed a security threat.

The agency refuses to admit that the law is illegal and says it puts it in direct confrontation with Israeli authorities.

As of this month, the U.N. agency has recorded the deaths of more than 380 U.N. agency staff as a result of Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 2023.

Earlier this month, Israel sent bulldozers to Partial destruction of UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem. Lazzarini, who said Israeli lawmakers and members of the far-right government were also present, said the attack came “after other steps taken by the Israeli authorities to eliminate Palestinian refugee status.”

As a United Nations agency, it enjoys international legal status. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in early January that he could take Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) if it did not abrogate the deal. Laws against UNRWA and the return of seized assets and property.

“Under what law is this happening?”

Mariam herself was slightly injured in the Israeli attack, as were her five children. Her husband suffered serious neck injuries.

In April 2024, she left Gaza as a medical companion to her husband, who was referred to an Egyptian hospital for treatment. She was forced to leave her other children behind in Gaza, including the injured one.

“It feels like leaving treatment and escaping death has become a crime that we are being punished for,” Mariam told Al Jazeera by phone, her voice breaking with tears.

“Isn’t it enough that I have been grieving my injured children while accompanying my husband to treatment while staying away from them and constantly worrying about them? They have fired us from our jobs and compounded our trauma. Under what law is this happening?”

For Mariam and many others displaced during the war, the blow was particularly hard when the decision was taken to place them on “special leave” in February 2025, although many of them continue to teach remotely.

“All my children are injured and have metal plates on their limbs. They are in great pain after I stopped paying,” said the mother of eight.

Over the past two weeks, the crisis has spread to staff remaining in the Gaza Strip, with the agency deciding to cut their salaries by 20%, a move that further deepens their humanitarian suffering amid catastrophic conditions in Gaza.

The financial shortfall comes as a result of a decline in international donations, which have long been the mainstay of UNRWA’s budget, especially after some donors froze contributions following Israeli charges against some of its employees.

UNRWA provides basic services, including education, health care and social assistance to the millions of Palestinian refugees who make up about 70% of Gaza’s population, playing a central role in maintaining a minimum level of stability amid repeated Israeli wars and border crossing restrictions.

Why Gaza first?

There is widespread anger and protest among UNRWA staff in and outside the Gaza Strip, who say the measures are primarily aimed at Gaza compared with the agency’s other five areas of operations: the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Mustafa al-Ghoul, a dentist who heads UNRWA’s Gaza staff union and has worked for the agency for 29 years, questioned why Gaza, the worst-hit area, was chosen as the first place to be sacrificed.

“All measures start from Gaza, as if Gaza was not already overrun by death, destruction and hunger,” he told Al Jazeera, standing in front of his partially destroyed headquarters in Gaza City.

Gul said some of the 600 laid-off Palestinian employees outside Gaza had their salaries and savings cut off without prior notice. “Some are sick. Some have cancer. Some are on official leave. Some have lost entire families. Some have left to treat their grandchildren, and then they are punished with dismissal and deprivation of rights.”

Gul appealed to UNRWA leadership: “Gaza needs someone to heal its wounds. Gaza is dying. You see tents, death and destruction everywhere. Gaza needs compassion, not sackings and drying up of lifelines.”

“UNRWA is the backbone of our survival”

Union warnings about the consequences of UNRWA’s cuts are already playing out in the scarred daily lives of Gaza’s displaced Palestinians, particularly in education, health care and food security.

This decline was reflected in the testimony of 28-year-old Jihan al-Harazin. A displaced mother of three in Gaza City, her family relies almost entirely on the agency’s services.

“UNRWA is the backbone of our existence, whether it’s in health, education or food. It provides everything,” she told Al Jazeera.

However, this reality has changed dramatically since the war began.

“Now, there is nothing,” Jihan said, referring to food aid that UNRWA has been unable to distribute for months.

Since October 2023, all humanitarian agencies, especially United Nations agencies, have continued to face obstacles in delivering aid to Gaza.

Lazzarini has repeatedly accused Israel of using humanitarian aid as a political tool. He said Israel was using aid to Gaza “as a weapon” to deepen civilian suffering.

Gaza ‘a war on humanitarian work’

Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza (PNGO), told Al Jazeera that UNRWA represents “the backbone of humanitarian work in the Palestinian territories”, stressing that its role is not limited to services but also goes to the political heart of the refugee issue and is one of the last pillars of humanitarian and social stability in Gaza.

“UNRWA carries the core cause of our people, the refugee cause itself. It was established under a United Nations General Assembly resolution and has been operating for decades,” he said.

Shawar said the agency was facing “continued incitement from Israel” which comes as Israel bans its operations in the occupied Palestinian territories, particularly Gaza, and blocks humanitarian aid.

He warned that weakening UNRWA was in line with Israel’s agenda to eliminate Palestinian rights of return and reparations. This has been a key goal of successive Israeli governments.

Schawa linked the agency’s cuts to a broader campaign against humanitarian efforts in Gaza, noting that Israel faces global condemnation It comes after a ban came into effect for dozens of international aid organizations dedicated to delivering life-saving aid to Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

“A war is being waged against humanitarian work, including UNRWA, and we are paying the price for our commitment to international humanitarian law, which the Israeli occupier refuses to abide by.”