UNRWA: Israel has stopped granting visas to NGO staff

The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, warned yesterday that Israel has stopped granting visas to heads and staff of international non-governmental organisations.

Lazzarini said in a statement posted on X, that “Humanitarian organisations and international media are prevented from doing their work properly. This has to end, and restrictions must be lifted,” on the organisations that “have been providing humanitarian assistance to people in need in close partnership with the UN.”

“The Government of Israel is phasing out representation from humanitarian organisations or those engaged in reporting on the atrocities of this war and the impact on civilians.”

#Gaza #WestBank @UNRWA pic.twitter.com/HiyiZPD8R0

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) September 17, 2024

He warned that “as humanitarian needs continue to increase we need more humanitarian workers not less,” adding that “the opposite is now happening.”

“Humanitarian organisations and international media are prevented from doing their work properly,” he concluded.

In December Israel told the United Nations it will not renew a visa for the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings.

Later that month, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen announced: “I instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs not to extend the visa of one of the organization’s employees in Israel, and to deny the visa request of another employee.”

He accused the UN of legitimising “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, publishing “unsubstantiated blood libels” and ignoring “the acts of rape committed against Israeli women”.

However Israel has actively prevented UN staff from speaking to victims and witnesses of the 7 October attacks into Israeli-held territory, with claims that Israeli women had been raped on the day now being brought into question with no victims coming forward.

Israel has manufactured an industrial-scale version of Jim Crow rape hoax