This news has come as a huge relief to Palestinians. Their economy is propped up by international donors and was left reeling by the dramatic cuts of the Trump administration.
Many saw them as an attempt to push Palestinian leaders into peace talks with Israel on terms that they considered to be heavily biased against them.
At Qalandia refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Hassan Abu al-Eish, 85, said he had felt the effect of the cuts in aid and was left unable to afford the basics. "When Trump arrived, he stopped all the Unrwa funds and closed all the doors on us," he commented.
The hope now is that President Biden will reverse other parts of the Trump administration's Middle East policy.
But steps to resurrect negotiations for a two-state solution appear unlikely until the impact of Israel's latest inconclusive general election becomes clearer and after Palestinian elections due in the coming months.
line
What does Unrwa do?
The agency was originally set up to take care of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
It says it now supports some 5.7 million registered refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, including by providing them with healthcare, education and social services.
When Mr Trump took office the US was the largest single donor to Unrwa. It provided $364m (£264m) in 2017 and funded almost 30% of its operations.
ut in 2018, the Trump administration said it was ending all support for Unrwa, calling it "irredeemably flawed". The agency strongly rejected the accusation.
Other donors increased their contributions in response, but the budget that supports the delivery of essential services was still left with a huge shortfall.
Unrwa's director of operations in the West Bank, Gwyn Lewis, told the BBC it had been "a tough few years", with the agency forced to make reductions to its programmes. It had to delay paying the salaries of its staff at the end of last year because of the shortfall.
"[The US announcement is] going to reassure a lot of the community and our staff, but it doesn't mean that we're on a financially safe ground as yet," she said. "And so we're really hoping that this US support will be a signal for other countries to renew their funding."
Many saw them as an attempt to push Palestinian leaders into peace talks with Israel on terms that they considered to be heavily biased against them.
At Qalandia refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Hassan Abu al-Eish, 85, said he had felt the effect of the cuts in aid and was left unable to afford the basics. "When Trump arrived, he stopped all the Unrwa funds and closed all the doors on us," he commented.
The hope now is that President Biden will reverse other parts of the Trump administration's Middle East policy.
But steps to resurrect negotiations for a two-state solution appear unlikely until the impact of Israel's latest inconclusive general election becomes clearer and after Palestinian elections due in the coming months.
line
What does Unrwa do?
The agency was originally set up to take care of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
It says it now supports some 5.7 million registered refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, including by providing them with healthcare, education and social services.
When Mr Trump took office the US was the largest single donor to Unrwa. It provided $364m (£264m) in 2017 and funded almost 30% of its operations.
ut in 2018, the Trump administration said it was ending all support for Unrwa, calling it "irredeemably flawed". The agency strongly rejected the accusation.
Other donors increased their contributions in response, but the budget that supports the delivery of essential services was still left with a huge shortfall.
Unrwa's director of operations in the West Bank, Gwyn Lewis, told the BBC it had been "a tough few years", with the agency forced to make reductions to its programmes. It had to delay paying the salaries of its staff at the end of last year because of the shortfall.
"[The US announcement is] going to reassure a lot of the community and our staff, but it doesn't mean that we're on a financially safe ground as yet," she said. "And so we're really hoping that this US support will be a signal for other countries to renew their funding."
