The interim head of the U.N. agency that aids Palestinian refugees accused the United States on Thursday of lobbying foreign parliaments to stop donations to the organization, to which Washington cut off funding in 2018. Christian Saunders, in an interview with Reuters in his Gaza office, also said Israel was seeking to replace United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) services for Palestinians, mandated by the U.N. General Assembly, in occupied East Jerusalem with those of its own. UNRWA has faced budgetary difficulties since 2018, when the United States, its biggest donor, halted its annual aid of $360 million.
