UNRWA chief vows to continue aid to Palestinians despite Israeli ban

AFP , Wednesday 15 Jan 2025

​The UN's Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA will continue to distribute aid in the Palestinian territories despite an Israeli ban due to be implemented by the end of January, its director Philippe Lazzarini said Wednesday.

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UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. Photo : AFP

 

Despite serious international concerns and condemnations, Israeli lawmakers have passed laws to bar UNRWA from operating in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem.

"We will ... stay and deliver," UNRWA chief told a conference in Oslo on Wednesday.

"UNRWA's local staff will remain and continue to provide emergency assistance and where possible, education and primary health care," Lazzarini said.

Lazzarini said the absence of communication between UNRWA and the Israeli authorities that will result from the ban will make the agency's work even more dangerous in the Gaza Strip.

UNRWA has been the main agency procuring and distributing aid in the Gaza Strip, where almost the entire population of around 2.3 million Palestinians relies on the agency for survival amid Israel's 15-month-old genocidal war on Gaza, which killes at least 46,707 people, mostly children and women.

With no visas, UNRWA's non-Palestinian employees will not be able to enter Gaza and those there now will have to leave, he explained.

"Continuing to work will come at considerable personal risk for our Palestinian colleagues," he said.

"This is due to the exceptionally hostile operating environment created by Israel's disregard for international law and fierce disinformation campaign against the agency," he added.

UNRWA is considered the backbone of humanitarian operations for Palestinians.

It was established to help the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 Nakba or the dispossession of the Palestinians by Zionist militias

Since its founding by the UN in 1949, UNRWA has provided a lifeline to millions of Palestinian in refugee camps Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip and West Bank, providing basic nutritional, health, and educational services as well as employment opportunities. 

The agency has warned that ending its role threatens stability in the entire region, as the resulting vacuum could expose Palestinian children to hatred, extremism, and crime.

The UN General Assembly Resolution 194 recognized the rights of Palestinian refugees, including the right of return, before the establishment of UNRWA.

 

* This story was edited by Ahram Online.

 

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