PROTESTERS gathered in front of the UN Gaza City headquarters yesterday calling for an end to cuts in humanitarian aim to the besieged Palestinian region.

They warned that the decision by the United States to withhold funds from the United Nations Relief and Works Aid for Palestine (UNWRA) would have a devastating effect on Gaza’s population, 80 per cent of whom are dependent on international aid.

The UNWRA recently decided to axe hundreds of permanent jobs held by workers inside the Gaza Strip and ended various humanitarian programmes established to bring aid to its 2 million citizens.

The Workers Union, which represents staff at the UNWRA, called for the agency to stop its policy of cuts and jobs losses, warning of an unfolding humanitarian crisis.

Spokesman Amir Al-Meshal told those gathered: “This move will adversely affect the services provided by the UNRWA in the Gaza Strip and those provided to more than 1.3 million Palestinian refugees.”

Since the US decision to withdraw funds from the UNWRA the agency has suffered a $246m loss, worsened by a failure by the Trump administration to deliver a promised $365m.

The move was seen as an attempt to punish the United Nations after many of its member states refused to support US President Donald Trump’s inflammatory decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city of Jerusalem.

Mr Trump suggested earlier this year that Palestinians should show some respect after he pulled “Jerusalem ... off the table” and warned that, unless the Palestinian Authority gets back round the table, he would stop funding relief projects.

However the UNWRA is entirely independent from the Palestinian Authority and relies on voluntary contributions from UN member states. The US funded almost 30 per cent of its budget in 2016 and the relief provided by the UNWRA remains an invaluable lifeline for more than 5 million Palestinians forced to flee after being driven off their land following the creation of Israel in 1948.

It provides education, health care, and social services to the Palestinian diaspora in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

As a result of the cuts more than 150,000 Palestinian refugees, including many children, are no longer receiving food aid.