Mobile-based accounts are locked then forced to download the app and provide biometric data.
Web-based accounts are forced to "confirm they are human" by scanning a QR code with their mobile phones (leaking privacy-compromising device information), which begins the same biometric data harvesting process.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned at a General Assembly pledging conference that UNRWA is facing an acute funding crisis and needs an urgent $100 million to keep core services running, saying further cuts could push conditions beyond the “breaking point.”
He said UNRWA is a “stabilizing force in an age of instability” and argued that its mandate cannot survive on reforms and austerity alone.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric separately described the agency’s situation as an “existential crisis,” with fundraising results expected today. UNRWA says that in 2025 it received about $887 million in pledges and $829 million in actual contributions, covering only 27% of its estimated $3.3 billion in total needs.
US President Trump’s Peace Council responds to the UN fundraising conference for UNRWA that is being now: 'UNRWA has no place in the new Gaza.'