The head of UNRWA, the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees”, on Friday said that Palestinian Arabs are in a "state of shock" over US President Donald Trump’s peace plan and voiced fears of a surge in violence.
"We certainly have serious concerns that it will result in an escalation in clashes and in violence," said Christian Saunders, acting head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, according to AFP.
"The plan that was released this week was extremely unsettling for the Palestine refugees living under occupation, under blockade and under conflict after conflict and crisis after crisis," Saunders was quoted as having told reporters in Geneva.
"I think a lot of people, a lot of Palestinians, are in a state of shock... in a state of disbelief," he added.
Saunders was in Geneva to launch an appeal to donors to fund UNRWA's 2020 budget to the tune of $1.4 billion towards essential services and assistance for 5.6 million people registered as “Palestinian refugees” across the Middle East.
The US, which was previously UNRWA's largest contributor, cut a full $300 million in funding to the agency in 2018, leaving it strapped for cash and asking other countries to help fill the gap.
Saunders said recently that UNRWA is facing the worst financial crisis in its history and has a budget deficit of $332 million.
After the US withdrew funding, a range of other countries stepped up support and UNRWA actually entered 2019 with a surplus of about $60 million, Saunders said.
"Unfortunately ... this initial support started to wane, and as a result we have been forced to carry over considerable liabilities into 2020," he said, adding, "We are stretched to our limits."
Saunders has temporarily taken the helm of UNRWA after Swiss national Pierre Krahenbuhl was ousted last year amid allegations of "serious ethical abuses" by the management.
A UN ethics report alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of UNRWA, including .
An internal UN probe found no "fraud or misappropriation of operational funds" by Krahenbuhl, but Saunders said the agency had taken criticism of mismanagement seriously.
"Since then we have put the place in order," he said.
In addition to the accusations of misappropriation, UNRWA is also notorious for its anti-Israel activities. During the 2014 counterterrorism Operation Protective Edge, Hamas rockets were discovered inside a school building run by UNRWA.
Likewise, a booby-trapped UNRWA clinic was detonated, killing three IDF soldiers. Aside from the massive amounts of explosives hidden in the walls of the clinic, it was revealed that it stood on top of dozens of terror tunnels, showing how UNRWA is closely embedded with Hamas.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)