https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/04/11486760‘Insidious campaign’ by Israel is denying life-saving aid to Gaza says UNRWA chief
17 April 2024Peace and SecurityThe Commissioner-General of the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) briefed the Security Council in New York on Wednesday as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens, telling ambassadors that life-saving deliveries are being blocked by Israel as part of an "insidious campaign" to push it out of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
UNRWA is the "backbone" of the aid effort in support of over two million Gazans displaced and battered by war with more than 33,000 killed - mostly women and children - and over 76,000 injured said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.
UNRWA briefing HIGHLIGHTS
- The agency is a ‘stabilizing force’, providing the backbone of the entire aid operation in Gaza
- A man-made famine is tightening its grip but UNRWA is being denied permission to delivery enough life-saving aid
- UNRWA is facing an Israeli campaign ‘to push it out of the Occupied Palestinian Territory'
- 178 UNRWA workers have been killed and 160 premises destroyed or damaged – killing more than 400 Gazans
- Mr. Lazzarini demanded an independent investigation into the blatant disregard for protection of humanitarian workers during the conflict
- UNRWA is ‘firmly committed’ to implementing any recommendations to strengthen neutrality safeguards
- Dismantling UNRWA would have “lasting repercussions” and will condemn “an entire generation to despair”
- Palestinians and Israelis share a long history of grief and loss. We must recognize “that they are equally deserving of a peaceful and secure future”
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5:23 PM
UNRWA must not be broken: Jordan
Ayman Safadi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan said Israel wanted to break UNRWA, the backbone of humanitarian efforts in Gaza, urging Member States not to allow this.
UNRWA deserves your support because only UNRWA has the ability to meaningfully help Palestinians in Gaza, who are starving, and provide vital services to Palestinian refugees across the region.
The disinformation campaign the Israeli government has been spreading against UNRWA must not shape the world’s view of the agency, he said.
UNRWA has nothing to hide and it has faced up to its responsibilities, committing to fix any wrongdoings or shortfalls - should any be found.
He said Israel’s “witch hunt” had started long before allegations were made against a dozen staffers.
The purpose of the attack on UNRWA is to destroy the rights of Palestinian refugees but it will not succeed, he told ambassadors.
UNRWA must be protected now, in the same way it has been protected in the past.
4:55 PM
‘The time has come to defund UNRWA’: Israel
Israel’s Ambassador Gilad Erdan said UNRWA was “one of the weapons” crafted by the General Assembly which was only prolonging the Middle East conflict.
“UNRWA, the organization that so many of you [UN members] fund, is the UN’s single biggest obstacle to a solution,” he said, stressing that the agency “is creating a sea of Palestinian refugees, millions of them, indoctrinated to believe that Israel belongs to them”.
“The end goal is to use these so-called refuges and their libelous right of return – a right that doesn’t exist – to flood Israel and destroy the Jewish State,” he added.
Ambassador Erdan said that just because “UNRWA has a thin layer of Europeans in charge of collecting donations and garnering support, it does not change the fact that UNRWA is a Palestinian organization fully committed to the Jewish State’s destruction.”
Which other group of refugees, he asked, has a UN body dedicated to them, while there are millions of other refugees in other crisis zones aided only by UNHCR - the UN refugee agency.
“UNRWA is the world’s biggest advocate for a ‘one-State solution’, a Palestinian State from the river to the sea,” he said.
“There are alternatives to UNRWA, among them NGOs and other UN agencies,” said the Israeli Ambassador.
“Israel cannot and will not allow UNRWA to continue in Gaza as it did in the past, I repeat there are alternatives to UNRWA, and it is up to you [UN members] if they can succeed…the time has come to defund UNRWA,” he concluded.
4:48 PM
Palestine: Ground invasion and airstrikes must end
Ziad Abu Amr, Special Representative of the President of Palestine, expressed his appreciation for UNRWA and all other humanitarians providing critical relief.
“We salute your courage and your dedication as you carry out this noble humanitarian mission, risking your own lives to provide relief for our people,” he said, while offering his condolences to those killed performing their duties.
Mr. Ziad said lives cannot be saved or relief provided in Gaza as long as Israel continues its ground invasion and air strikes.
He call for international pressure to increase on Israel to ensure respect for international law, including international humanitarian law.
Stating that “massacres” against innocent people in Gaza have been ongoing for six months, he asked: is it not “high time for this killing, this destruction and displacement to stop?"
He recalled the General Assembly resolution that established UNRWA and gave it its mandate:
“This is when the question of the Palestinian refugees is solved. Based on that, the General Assembly renews UNRWA’s mandate periodically – despite every attempt and campaign to cut if off from the United Nations,” he said.
Mr. Ziad added that the agency is “not a mere humanitarian project”, stressing that it is a “historic witness” of the commitment and obligation by the international community regarding Palestinian refugees forced from their homes after the 1948 Nakba.
