The United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) will continue to distribute aid in the occupied Palestinian territories despite an Israeli ban on the organisation due to be implemented by the end of January, agency chief Philippe Lazzarini said yesterday.
“We will stay and we will carry out our mission,” Lazzarini said at a conference in Oslo.
“UNRWA’s local staff will remain and continue to provide emergency assistance and, where possible, education and primary health care,” he added.
UNRWA provides assistance to some six million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
Lazzarini noted that lack of communication between UNRWA and Israeli occupation authorities due to the ban would make the agency’s work in Gaza even more dangerous.
Without visas, UNRWA’s non-Palestinian employees will be unable to enter Gaza, and those currently in the area will have to leave, Lazzarini explained.
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“Continuing to work will come at considerable personal risk for our Palestinian colleagues. This is due to the exceptionally hostile operating environment created by Israel’s disregard for international law and a fierce disinformation campaign against the agency,” he added.
Israel has alleged about a dozen UNRWA staff took part in the Hamas cross-border infiltration of Israel on 7 October 2023. However, it has provided no proof of its claims and investigations have found no evidence of this.
Israel has repeatedly equated UNRWA staff with Hamas members in efforts to discredit them, providing no proof of the claims, while lobbying hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees. If the agency no longer exists, argues Israel, then the refugee issue must no longer exist, and the legitimate right for Palestinian refugees to return to their land will be unnecessary. Israel has denied that right of return since the late 1940s, even though its own membership of the UN was made conditional upon Palestinian refugees being allowed to return to their homes and land.