Reuters
Updated Mon, March 18, 2024
CAIRO (Reuters) -Israel denied the head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) entry to the Gaza Strip on Monday, UNRWA and Egypt said, calling it an unprecedented move at a time of massive need.
Philippe Lazzarini, whose organisation has been in crisis since Israel accused 12 of its staff of taking part in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, said he meant to go to the Gaza city of Rafah but was informed: "my entry into Rafah is declined".
Speaking with him at a Cairo news conference, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said: "You were declined by the Israeli government, refused the entry which is an unprecedented move for (a) representative at this high position".
The Israeli prime minister's office and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
UNRWA is by far the largest relief body in Gaza, where the depth of the humanitarian crisis was underlined on Monday when a U.N.-backed report warned of imminent famine in the north.
"On the day new data is out on famine in #GAZA, the Israeli Authorities deny my entry to Gaza," Lazzarini wrote on X, adding that his visit was intended to improve humanitarian operations.
"This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity."
Israel's ground and air offensive has laid waste to the Gaza Strip over the last five months, killing more than 31,000 people, according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza.
The offensive was triggered when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel in an attack that killed 1,200 people and resulted in another 253 being taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
FUNDING CRISIS
Israel alleged in January that 12 of UNRWA's 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 attack. The Israeli accusations led 16 countries including the United States to pause $450 million in funding, throwing UNRWA operations into crisis.
UNRWA fired some staff members, saying it acted in order to protect the agency's ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, and an independent internal U.N. investigation was launched.
Australia is one of several states which subsequently resumed funding. Its foreign minister said last week that Australia had consulted with UNRWA and other donors and was satisfied the agency was not a terrorist organisation.
UNRWA has condemned the Oct. 7 attacks, saying the Israeli allegations against the agency - if true - are a betrayal of U.N. values and of the people UNRWA serves.
UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma told Reuters Lazzarini had visited the Gaza Strip four times during the war, and numerous occasions before that.
"We were ready to leave this morning on an Egyptian plane from Cairo to El Arish," Touma said.
Lazzarini has previously warned of a campaign to end UNRWA operations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said UNRWA must be shut down.
In Cairo, the UNRWA head warned of a "race against the clock" to reverse the spread of hunger and avert famine. With political will, Gaza could be "flooded" with food via land crossings, he added.
He also said that more than 150 of UNRWA's facilities in Gaza have been hit, damaged or completely destroyed.
"We also know that a number of staff that have been arrested have gone through very tough investigation, ill-treatment and humiliation," Lazzarini said.
(Reporting by Sarah El Safty, Nayera Abdallah, Clauda Tanios, Tom Perry in Beirut, James Mackenzie and Emily Rose in Jerusalem; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by William Maclean and Andrew Cawthorne)
UN agency chief says Israel blocked him from entering Gaza
AFP
Mon, March 18, 2024
UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said there is 'man-made starvation' in Gaza
(Fabrice COFFRINI)
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Monday Israel had blocked him from entering the war-torn and besieged Gaza Strip where the United Nations has warned of impending famine.
Israel responded that UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini had not followed proper procedure.
Lazzarini, who last month said Israel "aimed at destroying UNRWA," said he had "intended to go into Rafah today, but was informed my entry had been declined." He spoke in a Cairo joint press conference with Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
Israel in January accused several of UNRWA'S roughly 13,000 Gaza employees of being involved in the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israel.
Lazzarini wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he had been denied entry by "Israeli authorities".
COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry body governing civilian affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, said on X that Lazzarini had not followed "the necessary coordination processes and channels" when requesting entry into Gaza.
"This is another attempt by UNRWA to blame Israel for their own mistakes," it said of the UN agency at the centre of efforts to provide humanitarian relief in Gaza.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said "all UN officials, including Mr Lazzarini and his colleagues in UNRWA, should have access to do the vital humanitarian work they do."
Guterres "certainly wants Mr Lazzarini to have access throughout the areas in which UNRWA operates", Haq told reporters.
The Israeli accusation against some UNRWA employees led multiple donor nations including the United States to suspend funding although some have since resumed or increased it including Spain, Canada and Australia.
Israeli government spokesman Avi Hyman earlier Monday reiterated what he called Israel's position, that "UNRWA is a front for Hamas".
Lazzarini has said that Israel provided no evidence against his former employees accused over the October 7 attack.
Shoukry expressed Cairo's "complete support" for the agency and criticised "unilateral actions to restrict UNRWA funding due to baseless accusations".
The Hamas attack of October 7 resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory campaign in Hamas-controlled Gaza has killed at least 31,726 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.
- 'Man-made starvation' -
Among the dead are 168 UNRWA employees, according to the agency's latest figures.
Lazzarini on Monday said the UN has paid a "massive price in Gaza".
"More than 150 of our facilities have been completely destroyed in the Gaza Strip," he said.
"And a number of our staff were arrested and endured ill-treatment and humiliation during investigation."
In more than five months of war and siege, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated to what the UN has repeatedly warned is an imminent famine.
"This is man-made starvation," Lazzarini said.
The Gaza health ministry has in recent weeks recorded at least 27 deaths from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children.
The UN said Monday that half of the territory's 2.4 million people are experiencing "catastrophic hunger and starvation".
Humanitarian aid operations have intensified in recent weeks, including airdrops and efforts for a maritime humanitarian corridor from Cyprus, but UN and other aid agencies warn that these are insufficient to meet the desperate needs in Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, writing on X Monday, accused UNRWA of "collaboration" with Hamas and said "Israel allows extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help."
bam-bha/sbh/ami/it
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Monday Israel had blocked him from entering the war-torn and besieged Gaza Strip where the United Nations has warned of impending famine.
Israel responded that UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini had not followed proper procedure.
Lazzarini, who last month said Israel "aimed at destroying UNRWA," said he had "intended to go into Rafah today, but was informed my entry had been declined." He spoke in a Cairo joint press conference with Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
Israel in January accused several of UNRWA'S roughly 13,000 Gaza employees of being involved in the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israel.
Lazzarini wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he had been denied entry by "Israeli authorities".
COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry body governing civilian affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, said on X that Lazzarini had not followed "the necessary coordination processes and channels" when requesting entry into Gaza.
"This is another attempt by UNRWA to blame Israel for their own mistakes," it said of the UN agency at the centre of efforts to provide humanitarian relief in Gaza.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said "all UN officials, including Mr Lazzarini and his colleagues in UNRWA, should have access to do the vital humanitarian work they do."
Guterres "certainly wants Mr Lazzarini to have access throughout the areas in which UNRWA operates", Haq told reporters.
The Israeli accusation against some UNRWA employees led multiple donor nations including the United States to suspend funding although some have since resumed or increased it including Spain, Canada and Australia.
Israeli government spokesman Avi Hyman earlier Monday reiterated what he called Israel's position, that "UNRWA is a front for Hamas".
Lazzarini has said that Israel provided no evidence against his former employees accused over the October 7 attack.
Shoukry expressed Cairo's "complete support" for the agency and criticised "unilateral actions to restrict UNRWA funding due to baseless accusations".
The Hamas attack of October 7 resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory campaign in Hamas-controlled Gaza has killed at least 31,726 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.
- 'Man-made starvation' -
Among the dead are 168 UNRWA employees, according to the agency's latest figures.
Lazzarini on Monday said the UN has paid a "massive price in Gaza".
"More than 150 of our facilities have been completely destroyed in the Gaza Strip," he said.
"And a number of our staff were arrested and endured ill-treatment and humiliation during investigation."
In more than five months of war and siege, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated to what the UN has repeatedly warned is an imminent famine.
"This is man-made starvation," Lazzarini said.
The Gaza health ministry has in recent weeks recorded at least 27 deaths from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children.
The UN said Monday that half of the territory's 2.4 million people are experiencing "catastrophic hunger and starvation".
Humanitarian aid operations have intensified in recent weeks, including airdrops and efforts for a maritime humanitarian corridor from Cyprus, but UN and other aid agencies warn that these are insufficient to meet the desperate needs in Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, writing on X Monday, accused UNRWA of "collaboration" with Hamas and said "Israel allows extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help."
bam-bha/sbh/ami/it
Dossier reveals information used to explain UN agency's deep ties to Hamas in Gaza
Peter Aitken
Sun, March 17, 2024
United Nations headquarters and flag juxtaposed with a picture of an Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.
FIRST ON FOX – Fox News Digital obtained a dossier that the Israeli government is said to have used to explain its concerns to the U.S. and other nations about its actions toward a controversial United Nations agency and its relationship with Hamas.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (known simply as UNRWA) lost hundreds of millions of dollars from donors after allegations surfaced that at least a dozen employees had ties to and assisted Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The United States and several allies in January froze funding to UNRWA, and the agency fired the 12 employees named in the allegations. Since those initial allegations, the number has risen to potentially hundreds of employees with ties to Hamas.
The dossier reviewed by Fox News Digital includes an updated claim that the number of UNRWA employees directly involved in the Oct. 7 attack has risen to at least 15, with at least three suspected of being involved in the kidnapping of the hostages. This information, presented to ally nations by the Israeli government, allegedly prompted the countries to cut funding to the agency – an act that the majority have not reversed as of this week.
The information includes allegations that around 17% of UNRWA teachers (out of a total 8,300) and around 20% of UNRWA school principals and deputy principals (out of a total 500) are members of Hamas. Ties to the group extend to UNRWA workers in positions related to relief and humanitarian aid, with about 10% of the 151 relief workers, and members of UNRWA’s health services.
READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP
From 2009 to 2024, a little under $4 billion in taxpayer dollars was given to the humanitarian relief organization, according to a Fox News Digital review.
The most serious allegations claim that Hamas has representatives in the UNRWA staff union and influences it, and lines of communication exist at the district level between UNRWA’s district managers and Hamas. According to the information, "due to the scope of UNRWA's activity in the [Gaza Strip]," Hamas prioritizes its connection with UNRWA, stressing that "in steady state and in contingency state, the Hamas regime coordinates activities with UNRWA."
Satellite images reviewed by Fox News Digital show two boys' schools – the Maghazi Prep B Boys School and the Zaitun Prep A Boys School – that allegedly have Hamas tunnels underneath them. Both cases had resulted in UNRWA condemning potential violations of neutrality, but as of 2023 the tunnels remained open. Israel also identified several schools that stood next to rocket and mortar launch sites throughout the Gaza Strip.
GAZA STRIP RECEIVES NEARLY 200 TONS OF FOOD AND SUPPLIES, UN DESRIBES ‘HUGE OBSTACLES’ TO GETTING RELIEF
Israel has alleged logistical support and exploitation of UNRWA’s immunity, support through supplies and aid, sale of equipment that UNRWA imported to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) weapons manufacturing units.
"Furthermore, Hamas assists UNRWA in securing the humanitarian aid that is introduced to the [Gaza Strip]," the dossier explains. "Hamas’ operatives coordinate the aid transfer for UNRWA via Hamas’ tactical network, and have operatives of the Military Wing escort and secure the convoys. UNRWA complies with Hamas’ demands in other areas, as well, such as transferring fuel and additional equipment."
The dossier also included excerpts from textbooks used in the agency’s school curriculum that allegedly include glorification of martyrdom and antisemitic tropes. Maps provided to children in their textbooks show a singular land where Israel and the Palestinian territories exist but labeled as a singular Palestine.
Israel has argued that such content violates UNRWA’s neutrality policy, which the agency on its website describes as an understanding that "humanitarian actors must not take sides in hostilities or engage in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature."
One excerpt included a math problem which used "the number of martyrs" in the first and second intifadas (meaning rebellion or uprising) and decrees on Allah’s wishes for "hypocrites in fighting against infidels" and honoring martyrs "from among the believers."
More than 1,200 Israelis were killed, more than 6,900 civilians are estimated to have been injured, and hundreds more were taken hostage when Hamas launched a surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
"UNRWA, and the United Nations writ-large, have acted swiftly and decisively in the matter of the allegations brought against UNRWA employees, fully cooperating with Israeli authorities, issuing a public disclosure of the allegations and immediately terminating the named employees," William Deere, senior congressional adviser to the Washington, D.C., office of UNRWA told Fox News Digital.
An UNRWA tent camp in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Nov. 27, 2023.
Deere also claimed that the Israeli government had provided no information beyond the names of the dozen employees and that UNRWA only learned of further accusations of greater numbers of agency employees with ties to Hamas from international media reports and later from a press briefing by an Israeli official.
U.S. intelligence in February said it was likely some employees of UNRWA participated in the attack, but it also said it could not verify Israeli allegations of wider links between the agency and UNRWA, according to The Wall Street Journal. Citing the assessment, Deere noted "the reality of Hamas' control in Gaza means that while UNRWA may have to interact at a technical level with the group to deliver humanitarian relief, but that that doesn't mean that the agency is collaborating with the militant group."
Unlike the U.S. and several other countries, the United Nations has yet to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization.
A plane drops humanitarian aid around to Al-Shati refugee camp and Jamal Abdel Nasser Street in Gaza City on March 9, 2024.
"Another section of [the] report notes what it says is Israel's long-standing dislike of UNRWA and how Israeli bias serves to mischaracterize much of their assessments on UNRWA, resulting in distortions," Deere said.
"Israeli intelligence agencies said they concluded that 10% of all UNRWA workers had some kind of affiliation, usually political, with Hamas," the Wall Street Journal reported. "A far smaller number had ties to the militant wings of Hamas and another group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad. UNRWA employs around 12,000 people in Gaza."
Deere said the investigation team from the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) had commenced an investigation into the employees and potential ties, but insisted that the Israeli government must assist the investigation. An interim report provided to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres provided information that led to Canada reversing its decision to cut funding to the agency.
Another, independent review carried out by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna commenced following the allegations against the UNRWA employees, specifically citing concerns that UNRWA was not maintaining its neutrality policy. The group will issue an interim report on March 20, 2024, with a completed report expected exactly one month later.
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the department is focused on the U.N.'s investigation "to make sure that this is fully and thoroughly investigated, that there’s clear accountability, and that as necessary, measures are put in place so that this doesn’t happen again, assuming the allegations are fully borne out."
"We welcome the decision by the U.N. to conduct an investigation and a ‘comprehensive and independent’ review of UNRWA, as well as Secretary General Guterres’ pledge to take decisive action to respond, should the allegations prove accurate," the spokesperson added.
A man walks in front of the UNRWA building in Gaza City on Jan. 30, 2023.
Australia, the European Commission and Sweden also resumed funding for UNRWA in recent weeks: Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong told reporters "the best available current advice from agencies and the Australian government lawyers is that UNRWA is not a terrorist organization," arguing that it remains paramount to ensure "the integrity of UNRWA’s operations," rebuild confidence in the organization and ensure aid flows to Gaza.
Wong also pledged an additional $2.6 million to UNICEF to provide urgent services in Gaza, and a C17 Globemaster plane will also deliver defense force parachutes to help with the U.S.-led airdropping of humanitarian supplies into the enclave, which is on the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.
Survivors and family members of slain victims of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack have initiated a lawsuit against UNRWA USA and UNRWA this week, arguing the two groups are "[i]nextricably [l]inked" in supporting Hamas."
"501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations generally do good work. They feed the hungry, help the poor, and house the homeless. But on some very rare occasions, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization finances an international terrorist plot that kills over 1,200 innocent people," the lawsuit says. "This case involves one of those rare occasions."
Fox News Digital's Danielle Wallace, Lawrence Richardson, Brianna Herlihy and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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