WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees said a U.S. decision on Friday to halt funding was disappointing and surprising, and rejected the U.S. assertion that its programs were irredeemably flawed.

“We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that UNRWA’s schools, health centers, and emergency assistance programs are ‘irredeemably flawed,’” Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said in a series of Twitter posts.