UNRWA USA Welcomes Latest Gaza Ceasefire Agreement with Hope, Calls for Immediate and Full Humanitarian Access
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 9, 2025
Washington, DC — UNRWA USA National Committee (UNRWA USA) welcomes the October 8 announcement of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, following two devastating years of relentless Israeli military bombardment, mass forced displacement, manufactured famine, and profound loss — what many experts, and most recently a UN Commission of Inquiry, have characterized as genocide.
This agreement brings a fragile but critical reprieve from daily terror for millions of Palestinians, including thousands of UNRWA staff and their families, many of whom are Palestine refugees themselves and have deep roots in the communities they serve. As one UNRWA colleague in Gaza shared: “People are in shock — they can’t believe the suffering could finally stop.”
After almost three years of school closures, more than 660,000 children in Gaza are waiting to return to their classrooms in schools that no longer exist. Thousands of UNRWA teachers are ready to resume lessons, provide safe spaces for learning, and help children begin to heal through education, play, and psychosocial care.
Since October 2023, UNRWA has remained on the ground in Gaza providing life-saving services under fire: delivering food assistance when possible, maintaining water wells and sanitization systems, offering mental health and trauma counseling, providing primary healthcare and medicine, and operating shelters under the most dangerous and dire conditions.
In the face of arbitrary Israeli blockades and severe restrictions on aid, UNRWA has found ways to reach displaced families and communities in desperate need. With Gaza’s health system in ruins, the Agency has become the largest provider of healthcare in Gaza.
During the previous ceasefire from January 19 to March 18, 2025, UNRWA was able to restore essential services and reach families in urgent need; the Agency is prepared to do so again, provided that full humanitarian access is secured and respected in accordance with international humanitarian law.
“This ceasefire gives our colleagues, both at UNRWA and UNRWA USA, and the refugee communities we serve a moment to pick up the pieces, to grieve, to rest, and to hope again,” said Mara Kronenfeld, Executive Director of UNRWA USA. We honor the courage and dedication of the UNRWA staff, including at least 370 UNRWA colleagues who were killed while serving their communities. Their sacrifice underscores the urgent necessity of protecting civilians, upholding human rights and humanitarian principles, and ensuring access for humanitarian actors to carry out their mandates safely and effectively.”
UNRWA’s unique scale, infrastructure, and community trust — built over seven decades — make it the only agency capable of delivering humanitarian aid in Gaza safely, effectively, and at scale. Any attempts to replace or sideline UNRWA with ad hoc or politically motivated entities, such as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), have proven disastrous, have only deepened suffering, and have delayed relief. These stunts have left UNRWA aid trucks full of food waiting outside Gaza, while famine spreads.
To save Palestine refugee lives and to rebuild Gaza’s future, UNRWA must have unrestricted access and be fully resourced to continue doing what it does best: delivering food, clean water, healthcare, education, sanitation, mental health support, and hope – at scale, with humanity, dignity, and integrity.
While the ceasefire brings relief, the implications and next steps are still unfolding. UNRWA USA will continue to raise funds, monitor the situation closely, and share updates as we understand more about the humanitarian access, security conditions, and UNRWA’s ability to expand services to meet urgent needs.
UNRWA USA urges all parties to respect the ceasefire agreement and protect civilians and humanitarian workers, and ensure safe, sustained humanitarian access across the Gaza Strip and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory. The international community must uphold accountability for violations of human rights and humanitarian law. Our United States government must immediately restore full funding for UNRWA, the most cost-effective solution, as part of its moral and legal obligation to safeguard human life.
Media Contact:
Laila Mokhiber, UNRWA USA Senior Director of Communications
laila@unrwausa.org | (202) 223-3767
###
About UNRWA USA
UNRWA USA National Committee (UNRWA USA) is an independent nonprofit organization that provides support for the humanitarian work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). UNRWA USA lifts up the voices, experiences, and humanity of Palestine refugees to secure American support for resources essential to every human being, for the promise of a better life. US taxpayers are eligible for tax deductions for donations made through UNRWA USA. UNRWA is the backbone of the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip and an irreplaceable lifeline for millions of Palestine refugees across the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.