In the camps of Lebanon, where Palestinians have lived since the upheaval of 1948 and where many have never been granted a place in the country that shelters them, a long-standing thread of support is fraying. As funding for the UN agency that has educated and healed them dwindles, schools run on shorter weeks, clinics close their doors, and families who once leaned on these institutions must find their own way through a withering economy. The story is less about one agency's ledger than about what it means for people without a state to lose the scaffolding that held their daily lives together
UNRWA Funding Cuts Deepen Hardship for Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon's Camps
Israeli attacks killed 12 people in Lebanon in February, including two in Ein el-Hilweh camp, and earlier killed at least 13 people, including 11 children, playing football in a camp.
She now pays $200 a month, the same as her rent, for after-school lessons.
Mark
Why does a funding story feel so personal here?
Mimi
Because the cuts show up in daily choices. Doumoua al-Baitan now pays $200 a month for her children's after-school lessons, the same as her rent.
Mark
What has actually closed?
Mimi
UNRWA's June 2026 report says 11 of 26 primary healthcare centres and clinics are shut. Schools have moved to four-day weeks, and residents in Bourj el-Barajneh describe classes of 40 or more.
Luke
Careful with that last part. The class sizes and school closures in that camp come from residents, not from an UNRWA figure.
Mimi
Fair. The agency's own numbers are the $70m to $80m gap and the 20 percent cut in service hours.
Luke
And that gap is the spokesperson's statement, given in October.
Mark
What about the drugs and crime?
Mimi
Jafra's monthly report shows increases, and its security officer links it to the lack of work.
Luke
That's one organisation's reading, and he says it's entirely economic. The reporting offers no crime statistics, so we can't gauge the scale.
Mark
And the Israeli strikes?
Mimi
Twelve killed across Lebanon in February, two at Ein el-Hilweh, and earlier at least 13, including 11 children playing football.
Luke
What's still unknown is whether operations will actually reach the camps. Jafra describes that as a fear, not an event.
El Pulso
- Eleven of twenty-six primary healthcare centres in Lebanon sit shuttered while UNRWA seeks $70 to $80 million more to keep its remaining services alive.
- Classrooms swell to forty pupils or more as schools slip to four-day weeks, and parents like Doumoua al-Baitan pay rent-equivalent sums just to keep their children learning.
- Drug use, crime and joblessness are rising in camps where refugees are barred from medicine, law and engineering, and the economy has little left to offer.
- Residents are taking to sit-ins and protesting thin flour rations, while Israeli strikes near southern camps raise fears of a fresh wave of flight.
In the camps of Lebanon, where Palestinians have lived since the upheaval of 1948 and where many have never been granted a place in the country that shelters them, a long-standing thread of support is fraying. As funding for the UN agency that has educated and healed them dwindles, schools run on shorter weeks, clinics close their doors, and families who once leaned on these institutions must find their own way through a withering economy. The story is less about one agency's ledger than about what it means for people without a state to lose the scaffolding that held their daily lives together, while a wider war hangs over the south and the memory of displacement grows heavier.
Doumoua al-Baitan sits on a rooftop in Bourj el-Barajneh, the Beirut camp where she was born and raised, as the sun goes down. Like generations before her, she has depended on UNRWA, the agency that has served Palestinian refugees since 1950 and runs schools, clinics and relief across twelve camps in Lebanon. Now that support is shrinking.
The agency's finances have been squeezed by a US funding freeze and wider shortfalls. UNRWA says it needs roughly $70 to $80 million more for 2026 and has cut service hours by a fifth. Schools have moved to four-day weeks, and in Bourj el-Barajneh many have closed entirely, leaving classes of forty or more. Al-Baitan, a divorced mother of four, now pays $200 a month, as much as her rent, so two of her children can attend after-school lessons. Healthcare has contracted as well: by June only fifteen of twenty-six primary clinics were working.
The strain shows beyond the classroom. Fadi Abu Halawa of the Jafra Foundation says the economy is exhausted and there is no work, and that crime and drug use are rising in the camps. Some refugees carry heavier burdens still, including thousands who are undocumented and nearly 19,000 who fled Syria and lost residency renewals under a 2024 Lebanese policy. Residents have begun to protest, and Shatila has planned a sit-in, after a flour distribution of five kilograms per family drew anger.
Over all of it hangs the war in the south. Israeli strikes have killed people in Ein el-Hilweh and, earlier, eleven children playing football in a camp. Aid workers and residents fear the fighting may reach the camps and push families into a new round of displacement, while those already living there keep stretching what little they have.
Doumoua al-Baitan sat on a rooftop in Bourj el-Barajneh, the Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, as the sun went down. She was born and raised in the camp, as were many of its residents. Like them, she has relied for her whole life on UNRWA, the UN agency set up for Palestinian refugees, and that support is now shrinking.
UNRWA has served Palestinian refugees across the Middle East since 1950. In Lebanon it runs education, healthcare, relief and social services, camp infrastructure, microfinance and emergency assistance in 12 camps, home to a large share of the country's roughly 230,000 Palestinians. Their presence goes back to the 1948 Nakba, when 750,000 Palestinians became refugees. Most in Lebanon today are de facto stateless, without Lebanese citizenship, and are effectively barred from professions including medicine, law, engineering and pharmacy.
The agency's finances have worsened sharply. In February 2025 the Trump administration chose to maintain a US funding freeze first imposed the year before. Between those cuts and wider shortfalls, UNRWA has closed or shortened hours at schools, healthcare centres and clinics in the Lebanese camps. Spokesperson Fadi al-Tayyar told Al Jazeera in October that the agency needs about $70m to $80m more for 2026, and that it has cut service hours by 20 percent since February.
The effects show up first in classrooms. Many schools have moved from a five-day to a four-day week for the 2026-27 academic year. More than 35,000 pupils attend 58 schools, with 15 additional classrooms in Beddawi camp in Tripoli. Residents of Bourj el-Barajneh say most schools in their camp have shut and that students are packed into classes of 40 or more. Al-Baitan, a divorced mother of four, says her children cannot retain what they are taught. She now pays $200 a month, the same as her rent, for two of them to attend after-school lessons.
Healthcare has contracted too. UNRWA's June 2026 emergency report found that only 15 of 26 primary healthcare centres and clinics in Lebanon were working; eleven had closed. Palestinians also describe fewer jobs, and say the use and sale of illegal drugs has become more common.
Fadi Abu Halawa, security officer at the Jafra Foundation in Beirut, a nonprofit supporting vulnerable communities including Palestinian refugees, said the economy is exhausted and there is no work. Jafra's monthly report shows increases in crime and in drug use and distribution in the camps. He put the blame squarely on the economy, saying all of it was "100 percent" due to it.
Some refugees carry heavier burdens. Between 3,000 and 5,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are undocumented. An estimated 19,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria also live there, many having fled that country's 13-year war. A Lebanese policy change in May 2024 halted residency renewals for many of them, exposing them to detention and making legal work, school registration and civil matters harder.
Residents have begun to protest through sit-ins, and Shatila, one of Beirut's largest camps, has organised one for Friday. Jafra's October report says a recent UNRWA distribution of bread and flour provoked wide dissatisfaction. Families received a 5-kilogram bag of flour each, which they said does not meet the needs of large households or make up for reduced services.
Israel's war on Lebanon adds another layer. Five camps lie in the south and have faced displacement and attacks. In February Israel killed 12 people in strikes across Lebanon, two of them in Ein el-Hilweh, the country's biggest Palestinian camp, in Sidon. Three months earlier, it killed at least 13 people, including 11 children playing football, in a dense camp. Jafra's October report warns of security instability as Israeli operations in the south intensify, with fears they are nearing the camps and could set off a new wave of displacement.
Citas Notables
There is a very tired economic situation and there is no work.— Fadi Abu Halawa, security officer, Jafra Foundation
My kids cannot retain what they are taught in class.— Doumoua al-Baitan, Bourj el-Barajneh resident
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