Home Blog UNRWA Chef says the ban on Israel will be disastrous | News Israel-Palestine Conflict

UNRWA Chef says the ban on Israel will be disastrous | News Israel-Palestine Conflict

by telavivtribune.com
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The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, says that the ban on Israel “would increase instability and deepen despair” at a “critical moment”.

The head of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) warned that an imminent Israeli prohibition of the organization would paralyze humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip and undermine the ceasefire of Israel-Hamas .

Philippe Lazzarini, general commissioner of UNRWA, told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday that the ban, which should come into force on Thursday, “would increase instability and deepen the despair of the Palestinian territory occupied at a critical time” .

This decision would also undermine recovery and reconstruction efforts for the enclave which was ravaged by more than 15 months of war, and eroding confidence in the international community and compromises the prospects for peace and security, he declared.

The United States, a key ally of Israel, argued the “sovereign decision” taken by Israel to close a UNRWA and cut all contact with it.

Dorothy Shae, Washington’s envoy to the meeting of the Security Council, said that the agency who delivered assistance to millions of people “exaggerated” the potential impact of the Israeli ban – which, according to experts And UN officials, would probably be catastrophic.

UNRWA manages the largest network providing humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands in the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugee populations across the Middle East. It also operates with a host of other agencies and manages schools that have become punishment of displaced civilians in Gaza which have been targeted several times by the Israeli army.

Israel had told the meeting that within 48 hours, this would reduce all contacts with UNRWA, the ban on Israeli officials dealing with the agency and would require the closure of organizational offices in areas under Israeli control.

“UNRWA must cease its operations and evacuate all the locals it operates in Jerusalem, including the properties located in Maalot Dafna and Kafr Aqab,” said the Israel ambassador Danny Danon, to the Council.

“Israel will put an end to any collaboration, communication and contact with UNRWA or anyone acting on their behalf,” he said.

The agency played a decisive role in the supply of Gaza aid supplies throughout the War of Israel and since the ceasefire agreement of Israel-Hamas came into force earlier this month.

“Since October 2023, we have delivered two thirds of all food aid, provided a shelter to more than a million people displaced and vaccinated a quarter of a million children against polio,” Lazzarini told the council of security.

“Since the start of the ceasefire, UNRWA has brought 60% of the food entering Gaza, reaching more than half a million people. We perform some 17,000 medical consultations every day, “he said.

As part of the ceasefire agreement, Israel has also opened certain military control points on the besieged territory, allowing the thousands of Palestinians who had been moved to the south of Gaza to return home in the north of Strip.

Reporting from Salah al-Din Street, the main highway that extends from Southern Gaza to the North, Tareq Abu Azzoum from Tel Aviv Tribune said that the trip was overwhelming and exhausting for those who did it.

“The people who came back to assess damage to their homes (in the North) told us that they had only found the destruction and the remains of their previous lives,” he said.

“They started to rebuild again to rebuild what they lost. Many of them have again developed their makeshift shelters near the ruins of their destroyed houses. »»

More than 47,000 people have been killed and more than 111,000 injured in the War of Israel against Gaza since October 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities.

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