DAMASCUS, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Pierre Krahenbuhl, head of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said here on Tuesday that the funding deficit of the agency is the "largest in its history."
Krahenbuhl said the organization, which has looked after the needs of Palestinian refugees in the region for 70 years, is suffering a deficit of 446 million U.S. dollars as a result of U.S. funding cut.
He said the shortfall "is a very very large amount for a humanitarian organization to overcome."
However, the organization has exerted efforts and mobilized fund enough for six months of this year, he pointed out.
"We have mobilized until now just a little bit over 200 million dollars which means that we still have close to 250 million that we are looking for," the UNRWA chief said.
The situation of UNRWA was dramatically exacerbated by the decision of the U.S. government to cut 300 million dollars of its contribution to the agency, as the United States had been the single most important contributor to the UN agency over decades.
UNRWA is a relief and human development aid body for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. It currently helps about 5.3 million people in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria as well as the West Bank and Gaza.
It offers education for more than half a million boys and girls and runs 140 clinics that see 3.5 million patient visits each year.
The agency also conducts emergency operations for about 1.7 million refugees, particularly in Gaza, the West Bank, and Syria.
Syria is one of the hosting countries for Palestinian refugees, who fled their homes and lands in historical Palestine in 1948 prior to the establishment of Israel.
Krahenbuhl told Xinhua that Syria is currently home to 440,000 Palestinians in comparison with the pre-war figure of 560,000.
The UNRWA's funding deficit also comes at a time when living areas of the Palestinian population in Syria have largely been affected by the Syrian war, including the Yarmouk Camp area.
The Syrian army has recently captured Yarmouk and nearby areas from the IS and other like-minded groups, but the return of Palestinians to their homes is not clear yet as the area is largely destroyed.
