UN relief agency gets cash injection

GENEVA - Almost a dozen countries have agreed to advance their annual contributions to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees to help it plug a major shortfall after a partial cutoff of US funding, its chief said on Tuesday.

The move by President Donald Trump's administration appears linked to a United Nations vote rejecting Washington's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency.

The United States said this month it would withhold $65 million of $125 million it had planned to send to UNRWA, which runs schools and clinics for 5.3 million Palestinians across the Middle East, including in Gaza and the West Bank.