The Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, sent a letter on Tuesday to the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Phile?mon Yang, regarding the Israeli Knesset’s decision to ban UNRWA’s operations in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Lazzarini said that “the adoption 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 the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem.”
“The legislation comes after a year of blatant disregard for UNRWA staff lives, premises, and humanitarian operations in Gaza, and after intense diplomatic campaigns by the Government of Israel targeting UNRWA’s donors with disinformation to undermine funding,” Lazzarini dded.
“Israeli local authorities are also threatening to evict UNRWA from its headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem and replace it with settlements,” he warned.
“These developments risk the collapse of UNRWA’s operations in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza and severely undermine the overall UN Gaza humanitarian operation, which relies on UNRWA’s platform,” he said.
“In the absence of any viable alternative to the Agency, these measures will compound the suffering of Palestinians,” he added, noting that “the situation in Gaza is beyond the diplomatic vocabulary of the General Assembly.”
“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 continued.
“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,” Lazzarini explained.
In his multi-page letter, the UNRWA chief said that
“the surviving population lives in the greatest indignity. In the North, the population is trapped, awaiting death by airstrikes or starvation.
Source: Jordan News Agency