The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees will open an office in Ankara within weeks, its chief Philippe Lazzarini said Thursday while visiting the Turkish capital.
"We have signed the final agreement with the government of Türkiye, and this time it has been also endorsed by the parliament," he told reporters, adding that it was "a question of weeks" until it opened.
In November, Sabah newspaper reported that the deal with UNRWA will make Türkiye the main supply center for aid to Palestinian refugees and a hub of coordination for assistance between the Caucasus, Middle Eastern and other regional countries.
Türkiye has been a part of the UNRWA Advisory Commission since it was founded in 1949. UNRWA has provided essential services – including primary health care, education and emergency assistance – to the Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan for decades.
Türkiye chairs the Working Group on the Financing of UNRWA and is also a major contributor. In 2023 alone, it provided $10 million to the agency. Since the new round of the conflict began between Israel and Hamas, Türkiye provided an additional contribution of $1 million. In 2024, with contributions from volunteers and the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), this figure reached $15 million. This year’s contribution was $10 million.
Türkiye is a major supporter of Palestinians who are deprived of aid amid the inaction of most of the international community. Along with the government, charities in the country regularly deliver aid to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians, ranging from food and clothes to medicine and hygiene kits.
On Wednesday, UNRWA said it was going through a "dire" financial crisis that had forced it to fire hundreds of Gazan staff who had left the territory.
"On Tuesday, 571 local UNRWA staff, outside Gaza, were informed that they were being separated from the agency with immediate effect," a spokesperson told AFP in an email.
For more than seven decades, the UNRWA has provided aid and assistance to Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
But the agency has seen the voluntary contributions it relies on dwindle as it has become the focus of increasingly harsh Israeli criticism and attacks, causing what the spokesperson called an "unprecedented financial crisis."
While the work UNRWA was mandated to do cost around $880 million in 2025, the agency received only around $570 million in contributions, the spokesperson said.
"As things stand, we expect a substantial shortfall in 2026," they added.
All of the staff affected by this week's announcement had originally worked in the Gaza Strip, but had managed to leave early in the war.
Most had been unable to carry out their duties remotely since leaving Gaza, but had remained on UNRWA's payroll until last March, when they were placed on exceptional unpaid leave, the spokesperson said.
"The affected staff have been without pay for over 10 months, and it is impossible to foresee when or if they could resume their duties due to circumstances entirely beyond UNRWA's control," the spokesperson said.
"Recognising that UNRWA's financial situation remains dire, the agency took a decision which at least allows them to access financial resources rapidly, including separation indemnities."
The spokesperson stressed that UNRWA, which has seen more than 300 of its employees killed in Gaza since the start of the war, still had around 12,000 staff working inside the Palestinian territory.
Israel has barred UNRWA from operating on its soil, accusing the agency of providing cover for Hamas fighters.
