The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has taken a controversial step by notifying 3,000 employees in Gaza of a change in their contracts from permanent to temporary, limiting their contracts to just three months for those with less than thirteen years of service.
This move has sparked widespread condemnation and fear of mass layoffs, threatening the job security of thousands of Palestinian families amid difficult circumstances in the Gaza Strip. The Joint Refugee Committee in Gaza described the decision as a serious threat to the employees’ futures, viewing it as a precursor to terminating their services once the short-term contracts expire.
The committee emphasized that these measures assault employee dignity and family stability, attempting to impose a policy aimed at shrinking UNRWA’s operational capacity. It highlighted that the agency’s crisis is primarily political rather than merely financial and called on the international community to intervene with sustainable funding to protect the agency from collapse.
Concerns were raised over the impact on UNRWA’s ability to fulfill its mandate toward millions of refugees reliant on its services. The committee urged immediate reversal of the decision and called for serious dialogue with employees and refugees to safeguard workers’ rights, holding the acting Commissioner-General fully responsible for the consequences.
Trade unions and national factions were called upon to unite and resist the decision, warning that silence would open the door for further measures endangering vital refugee services in Gaza. Dr. Alaa Al-Din Al-Aklouk warned that this approach aims to liquidate UNRWA’s political and humanitarian role by emptying it of key staff, threatening the Palestinian refugee cause tied to the right of return and compensation.