Mourners weep during a funeral procession of a Palestinian youth, killed on previous night in a raid by the Israeli occupation army, in the Al-Dahriya village on the outskirts of the Israeli occupied West Bank city of Hebron. AFP
"The underreported silent war: record levels of violence in the occupied West Bank since October 2023. More than 1,000 Palestinians — almost a quarter of them children — have been killed," Lazzarini wrote on X.
Tens of thousands remain displaced nearly a year after Israel launched its “Iron Wall” operation in January 2025, Lazzarini said, describing it as the largest wave of displacement since the 1967 war and Israel's subsequent occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “Their homes are now gradually demolished to prevent their return,” stressed the UNRWA chief.
“Attacks by Israeli settlers continue unabated, with Palestinian communities constantly intimidated, uprooted and their livelihoods ruined,” Lazzarini added.
He warned that impunity reigns in the West Bank and that, while global attention has focused on Gaza, “the flagrant disregard for international humanitarian law…has become normalized. It has to stop before it is too late.”
The violence in the West Bank has also targeted UNRWA itself. The agency condemned on Sunday an arson attack on its headquarters in East Jerusalem as part of the “ongoing attempt to dismantle the status of Palestine refugees and erase their history.”
“After having been stormed and demolished by the Israeli authorities, the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem has now been set on fire,” UNRWA said in a statement.
Israeli forces raided and began demolishing parts of UNRWA's headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, last month, actions Lazzarini said undermined the agency’s ability to operate in the occupied territories.
In a separate post, Lazzarini addressed Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, where Israeli bombardments have displaced almost two million Palestinians and killed more than 71,660 since October 2023, many of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
“A ceasefire means guns fall silent and give way to efforts to end the war. Enough. People in Gaza deserve a genuine ceasefire — a much overdue ceasefire,” the UNRWA chief said in a post on Saturday, following a wave of Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip that killed at least 32 Palestinians, one of the highest tolls since the October ceasefire took effect.
Israel has killed more than 500 Palestinians since agreeing to end its genocidal war under the US-brokered ceasefire, including more than 100 children, according to UNICEF.
Short link: