Palestinians pass by the gate of an UNRWA-run school in Nablus in the West Bank, August 13, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Abed Omar Qusini.

The United States on Friday cut funding to a UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees, saying its business model and fiscal practices were an “irredeemably flawed operation.”

“The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency),” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

She said the agency’s “endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years.”

UNRWA says it provides services to about 5 million Palestinian refugees. Most are descendants from individuals who left their homes during the 1948-49 war that followed the founding of the State of Israel.