UNRWA head says Israel's effort to dismantle the aid agency will be catastrophic for Gaza


 United Nations Work and Relief Agency for Palestine Commissioner General Phillpe Lazzarini said Tuesday that Israeli legislation against UNRWA will have a catastrophic impact on the international response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Palestinians inspect a destroyed UNRWA school following an Israeli air strike in Al Nusairat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, 06 June 2024. File photo by Mohammed Saber/EPA-EFE

Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The head of the United Nations Work and Relief Agency for Palestine said in a Tuesday letter to the U.N. General Assembly that Israeli legislation against UNRWA will have a catastrophic impact on the international response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on X that Israeli bills targeting UNRWA are aimed at preventing it from operating to offer aid in the occupied Palestinian territory.
His letter to the U.N. General Assembly sought support to make sure UNRWA can continue delivering aid to Palestinians.

"The adoption today by the Knesset of two laws on UNRWA in effect denies the protections and means essential for UNRWA to operate, forbidding Israeli state officials from contact with UNRWA or its representatives, and prohibiting UNRWA operations within what is referred to as the sovereign territory of the State of Israel," Lazzarini wrote in his letter to the U.N. General Assembly president.

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Lazzarini said hostages taken by Hamas continue to suffer in captivity and Gaza's surviving civilian population "is trapped, awaiting death by airstrikes or starvation."

"After more than a year of the most intense bombardment of a civilian population since World War II, and the restriction of humanitarian aid far below minimum needs, the lives of Palestinians are shattered," Lazzarini added. "More than 43,000 people are reported killed, the majority women and children. Nearly the entire population is displaced. Schools, universities, hospitals, places of worship, bakeries, water, sewage and electricity systems, roads and farmland have all been destroyed."

UNRWA was formed in 1949 and is the primary aid agency for Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territories, delivering food and other supplies while educating 660,000 Palestinian youth.

Israel's Knesset overwhelmingly passed two bills Tuesday banning the organization within Israel.

"UNRWA has long ceased being a humanitarian aid agency. Beyond being an integral part of encouraging terrorism and hatred, it is an agency for perpetuating poverty and suffering," Yuli Edelstein, chairman of the Knesset's foreign affairs and defense committee, said as it was passed.

Israel accuses a handful of UNRWA's employees of being involved in the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 Israelis.

So far Israel's war in Gaza, launched after the Hamas attack, has killed 43,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

In his letter to the U.N. General Assembly, Lazzarini said the names of all UNRWA employees have been shared with Israel.

He said UNRWA takes allegations of UNRWA employees' complicity with Hamas very seriously, but asserted Israel has not provided evidence of its allegations requested by the agency.

"No response has been received," Lazzarini wrote. "UNRWA is therefore in the invidious position of being unable to address allegations for which it has no evidence, while these allegations continue to be used to undermine the Agency."

Lazzarini said UNRWA has been under "intense physical attack in Gaza." He said 237 UNRWA personnel have been killed, more than 200 premises have also been damaged or destroyed, killing 560 people seeking U.N. protection.