The head of the embattled United Nations agency that assists Palestinian refugees accused Israel on Monday of conducting a campaign to eliminate it, when more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are counting on their services to survive.
“UNRWA is facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations, and ultimately end them,” Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini told a special meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.
UNRWA is the acronym for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“Part of this campaign involves inundating donors with misinformation designed to foster distrust and tarnish the reputation of the agency,” he said.
UNRWA is facing a crisis of survival, after Israel presented information to Lazzarini in January alleging that 12 UNRWA staffers were involved in the October 7 terror attacks inside Israel. In response, 16 donors suspended funding totaling more than $450 million.
“No further information has been provided to me since that day, but the gravity of the allegations necessitated swift action,” Lazzarini said. “I terminated the contracts of the staff concerned in the interest of the agency.”
He later told reporters that there have been a number of “allegations, misinformation, disinformation, or at least unsubstantiated statements” about UNRWA, which Israel has mainly shared through social media or the press, “but not necessarily shared with the U.N.”
An internal investigation was launched on January 29 and in parallel, an independent review led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and a panel from three Scandinavian think tanks is assessing the agency’s neutrality. Their final report is due in April.
Lazzarini said UNRWA is at a “breaking point,” unable to absorb the financial shock of the suspended funding, especially in the middle of a war.
“The fate of the agency, and the millions of people who depend on it, hangs in the balance,” he said.
UNRWA also operates in the West Bank, as well as serving large Palestinian refugee populations in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Nearly 6 million Palestinians are eligible for UNRWA services, which include education and health care.
Israeli criticism
Israeli officials have criticized the agency for years, alleging that Hamas uses its schools for terrorist activities, stores weapons in them and has tunnels beneath them. It also says the schools promote an anti-Israel curriculum.
After the October 7 allegations against the 12 staffers, the Israeli rhetoric intensified, and officials all the way up to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have called for UNRWA to be dismantled.
Israel’s U.N. envoy said Monday that even before the October 7 attacks, UNRWA was “always part of the problem and never part of the solution.”
“UNRWA will never again operate in Gaza as it has prior to October 7,” Gilad Erdan said. “Its role in Gaza is finished, and it must be replaced immediately. UNRWA must be defunded and dismantled.”
While several donors, including top donor the United States, have suspended funding, some others have maintained or stepped up their contributions. Qatar’s ambassador announced an additional $25 million to the agency, and the European Union said it will release $54 million as part of the nearly $89 million promised to the agency for 2024.
Thailand offered an additional $80,000, and Mexico said it is disbursing $1 million this week to UNRWA. Saudi Arabia said it will soon announce additional funding.
Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour said Israel’s allegations against UNRWA are “libelous” and called for accountability for Israel’s actions in the war.
“Where is the accountability for Israel’s killing of 158 UNRWA staff, among them mothers and fathers killed with their children and families?” he asked. “Where is the accountability for Israel’s damage and destruction of 155 UNRWA facilities, and more gravely, the killing and injury of Palestinian civilians, who were desperately seeking refuge under the U.N. flag, but deprived of its protection?”
UNRWA says more than 400 Palestinian civilians have been killed while sheltering at their premises since the Israel-Hamas war started.
The General Assembly established UNRWA in 1949 to assist some 700,000 Palestinian refugees displaced in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War that broke out after Israel became a state that year in May.
UNRWA was always meant to be a temporary solution, but with no political settlement between the Palestinians and Israelis, it continues its mandate.
