With the full blockade of Israel on Gaza approaching 10 days, Philippe Lazzarini says that the aid is “armed”.
Philippe Lazzarini, the general commissioner of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warned that the situation in Gaza “deteriorates very, very quickly”, more than a week after Israel again interrupted all the supplies to enter the Gaza Strip.
“Whatever the intention, it is clearly a weapons of humanitarian aid in Gaza,” Lazzarini journalists in the UN offices in Geneva on Monday.
“It is essential that humanitarian aid is again authorized to enter Gaza to maintain the progress made during the first phase of the ceasefire and meet the basic needs of people,” he said, adding that there is a risk of returning to “in-depth hunger” observed before the recent ceasefire.
Lazzarini heads UNRWA, which was mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to provide assistance to the Palestinians, in Palestine and in neighboring countries, since December 1949.
The agency provides schooling and health services and could only be replaced by “capable Palestinian institutions” within a Palestinian state, “said Lazzarini several times, in the midst of its agency prohibited by the Israeli government.
Lazzarini told journalists that “a fierce disinformation campaign”, the legislation prohibiting UNRWA in the Israel Parliament and “the suspension of funding by key donors” wreaks havoc on the agency.
He warned that UNRWA cannot be allowed to “implode”.
“The collapse would create a dangerous empty in the occupied Palestinian territory and send shock waves through Jordan, Lebanon and Syria,” said Lazzarini.
“An environment in which children are deprived of education and people do not have access to basic services, is a fertile land for exploitation and extremism,” he said.
“This is a threat to peace and stability in the region and beyond.”
The agency’s financial situation is also “critical and precarious”, added Lazzarini.
Before January 26, 2024, the United States was the largest fundaler in UNRWA.
Following the accusations of Israel, the administration of former American president Joe Biden completely reduced his contributions to UNRWA, promising that she would continue to provide assistance to the Gaza Strip through United Nations alternative agencies, such as the World Food Program and non -governmental organizations.
However, according to the Times of Israel, American funding for Gaza’s rescue efforts may have been taken in the administration of the American president Donald Trump to the American Agency for International Development (USAID).
Although it is not clear exactly what programs of the USAID are being reduced, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in an article on X on Monday that after a 6 -week exam, we officially annul of USAID programs. “
The Trump administration had initially declared that the only exceptions to the cuts are aid programs in Israel and Egypt.
Rubio is currently in Saudi Arabia, where he discussed the reconstruction efforts of Gaza on Monday with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia is one of the dozens of countries to have expressed its support for a plan led by Egypt of $ 53 billion to rebuild Gaza as an alternative to Trump’s plan to force all the Palestinians from the Strip.
The Gaza reconstruction plan is part of many factors taken into account by the negotiators of Israel and Hamas and the mediators of Egypt, Qatar and the United States during talks aimed at relaunching the cease-fire agreement, which blocked after Israel refused to conclude the second phase of the agreement.
Hamas said on Monday that Israel had not also lived up to the agreement by refusing to withdraw its troops from the border area between Gaza and Egypt, known as the Philadelphi corridor, and preventing external aid from reaching Gaza directly.