THE commissioner of the UN agency responsible for the welfare of over five million Palestinian refugees across the world has urged donors to match last year’s donations again this year.

The United Nations Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA), which relies almost entirely on donations from UN member states, faced a $446 million (£335.7m) crisis last year after US President Donald Trump’s administration cut its £271.4m donation to just £45.2m.

“Last year we had an extraordinary crisis and an out of the ordinary response,” UNRWA commissioner general Pierre Krahenbuhl said late last night. “Our humble request to all the donors is: Please keep your funding levels at the same level as 2018.”