°®Âþµº

Employees at theÌýcash-strappedÌýÌýwill be getting paid this month, a senior agency official said on Wednesday.

About 28,000 of the agency's employees will be paidÌýby 10 December, UNRWA media advisor Adnan Abu Hasna told °®Âþµº.

The agency provides humanitarian aid and support to around 5.6 million Palestinian refugees in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, running hundreds of clinics and schools.

It has complained for years about a shortage of international funding, axing jobs andÌýwarningÌýthat it will suspend or reduce its services. Ìý

UNRWA staff in GazaÌýwent on a day-long strike Monday to protestÌýthe agency's failure to respond to their demands for their salaries, bonuses, and annual leave.ÌýThey also demanded that casual staff be given permanentÌýor temporary contracts.

Last month, the UNRWA Employees Union demanded management endÌýunpaid special leave, unfreeze salary increases,Ìýand ensure the agency maintains a Palestinian refugee staffing rate of 7.5 percent, among other requests.

Management has agreed to meet thoseÌýthree demands, Ameer al-Mishal, head of the UNRWA staff union in Gaza, told °®Âþµº.

The freeze on the annual salary increase, imposed in April, will be returned retroactivelyÌýby no later than March 2022, al-MishalÌýsaid.

With some of their demands having been met, the union suspended a strike scheduledÌýfor Thursday, he said.

However, the union has asked forÌýaÌýjoint staff union-management committee for all the countries UNRWA operates in to be formed, to help hash out other points of contention between the two sides. This has yet to be created.