GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Employees of the UN Palestinian refugee agency escalated their protest Wednesday in the Gaza Strip against sweeping pay cuts and dismissals as the organization blamed US funding cuts on the crisis.

Hundreds of UNRWA staff continued a sit-in that began Monday at the organization’s Gaza office and announced plans to go on an open-ended strike, demanding the agency cancel recent job eliminations.

On Wednesday, UNRWA fired 154 staff, 125 of them in Gaza, where it also downgraded another 580 to contract workers. Amir al-Miss’hal, head of UNRWA’s Palestinian employees union, said the agency technically canceled about 1,000 more jobs by not hiring new employees to fill in for those who retired.

One staffer who received a dismissal notice Wednesday attempted to set himself on fire, but bystanders and colleagues stopped him.

associated press