In the last 18 months of his life, Pope Francis had a frequent ritual: He would call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war.

The head of the U_N_ agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, says an Israeli ban on his institution has not forced it to halt its services so far but that in the long run, the agency faces an “existential threat.”.

The head of the U.N. agency caring for Palestinian refugees says that newly passed Israeli laws effectively banning its activities in Israel will leave a vacuum that will cost more lives and create further in Gaza and the West Bank.

The United Nations chief is appealing for funding for the beleaguered U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The head of the U.N. agency that has helped millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank for decades is urging the U.N. Security Council to ensure its survival as Israel again demands its dissolution.

Israel has ramped up its criticism of the embattled U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.

The head of the main U.N. aid agency in the war-battered Gaza Strip has warned that its work is “collapsing” after nine donor countries decided to cut funding.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees terminated a number of its staffers in Gaza suspected of taking part in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants on southern Israel.

Medicine has entered the Gaza Strip after Qatar and France worked out a deal between Israel and Hamas.

The United Nations says tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed into an already crowded town at the southernmost end of Gaza in recent days.

The head of the U_N_ agency for Palestinian refugees is telling a U_N_ emergency meeting “an immediate humanitarian cease-fire has become a matter of life and death for millions.”.

The head of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees says that his organization is facing an “existential” budget crisis and appealing for urgent funding of $120 million to keep essential education, healthcare and other services running.

The Commissioner-General of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees Philippe Lazzarini, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the U.N. relief agency, UNRWA, headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020. The financial crisis that the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees is experiencing could lead to ceasing some of its activities in what would raise risks of instability in this volatile region, Lazzarini said Wednesday. UNRWA's financial crisis was sparked by the loss of all funding from the United States, its largest donor, in 2018. UNRWA has registered 6,876 confirmed cases among Palestinian refugees, most of them in the West Bank, where some 5,000 cases have been detected. “We have people being more and more in despair expecting UNRWA to deliver more services, at a time UNRWA is already experiencing financial crisis,” Lazzarini said.