The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) might suffer budget cuts beginning July 2018. This is due to the United States (U.S.) reducing their aid contribution from $360 million last year to only $60 million this year. The agency has about a $250 million budget shortfall. Pierre Krähenbühl, the commissioner general of UNRWA, said that this is the worst financial crisis that the agency had faced.

UNRWA’s yearly spending relies on voluntary contributions of the 193 member states of the United Nations (U.N.). Trump administration officials said that aid would be restored if structural changes in the agency would be made. Krähenbühl said that other countries, namely Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), and Qatar, offered about $50 million in emergency funds after the U.S. announced the aid reduction back in January. UNRWA is an agency that offers aid to indigent Palestinians in Gaza and Syria.