BEIRUT, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said Tuesday that the UNRWA is committed to offering its medical, educational and humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and the region, local media reported.
"Despite UNRWA's financial crisis, we have succeeded in offering our educational services to over 500,000 students in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza, West Bank and Al-Quds in addition to other medical, humanitarian and protective services," Krahenbuhl was quoted as saying by Elnashra, an independent online newspaper.
His remarks came during his visit to Ain al-Hilweh camp accompanied by a delegation from the agency and UNRWA's director in Lebanon Claudio Cordone.
Krahenbuhl said that UNRWA made a lot of efforts to keep its services after the United States announced last year that it will no longer contribute to the agency.
The United States announced in September last year that it will no longer contribute to the UNRWA, calling the agency an "irredeemably flawed operation" while criticizing other countries for not sharing the burden of supporting Palestinians.
"We went through a very tough crisis last year as we lacked the 300 U.S. million dollars that used to be offered by the United States," Krahenbuhl said while adding that UNRWA's services will always depend on the generosity of donor countries.
