Government funding deal includes ban on U.S. aid to UNRWA, a key relief agency in Gaza, until 2025, sources say [Video]

The deal on a massive appropriations bill reached between Congress and the White House will include a ban on all direct U.S. funding for the main humanitarian agency operating in Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, until March 2025, three sources with knowledge of the negotiations confirmed to CBS News. 

The White House did not mention the cut in aid when it voiced broad support Tuesday for the deal in principle reached with Congress, which President Biden pledged to sign immediately if passed. 

UNRWA, which provides education, healthcare and social services in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria for an estimated six million Palestinian refugees, says that a cutoff in aid would create “a huge gap” in the agency’s funding. 

“This will undermine the effort to assist starving Gazans and potentially further weaken regional stability,” the agency said in a statement on Wednesday. 

Advocates for continuing aid have argued that the cutoff is unconscionable at a time when famine in Gaza is imminent.In …