The US decision to end its decades of funding for the UN agency that aids Palestinian refugees is "an attack on the rights of the Palestinian people," President Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman says.
Nabil Abu Rudeneh said the move "does not serve peace but rather strengthens terrorism in the region."
He said it was the latest hostile act of the Trump administration against the Palestinian people, after it recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved its embassy there.
He said the Palestinian leadership was considering appealing to the UN Security Council.
"This decision, which violates all resolutions of international legitimacy, requires the United Nations to take a firm stand against the US decision," he said.
"Whatever the size of the conspiracies aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause, this will only increase the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and its leadership."
The US supplies nearly 30 per cent of the total budget of the UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, and had been demanding it carry out significant reforms to what it called an "irredeemably flawed operation."
Palestinians have come to heavily rely on UNRWA's expansive health, education and social services, particularly in impoverished Gaza.
Adnan Abu Hasna, the UNRWA spokesman in Gaza, said they currently have 280,000 students in 274 schools and provide food aid to more than one million people.
But some in Israel accuse UNRWA of teaching hatred of Israel in its classrooms and tolerating or assisting Hamas militants in Gaza.
