JERUSALEM, Undefined: It is unrealistic to think the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, can easily be replaced in Gaza Strip, its head said Thursday in the face of calls for its abolition.
“It is a little bit short-sighted to believe that UNRWA can just technically hand over all its activities to other UN agencies or NGOs,” said agency chief Philippe Lazzarini at the agency’s headquarters in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
“It’s an agency (that’s) quite unique because we are… primarily providing government-like services to one of the most destitute communities in the region,” he added.
Pointing to education, he further said “there is no one except a functioning and administrative state which can provide a direct education to all these grades, at scale”.
In Gaza, he said, “we have the biggest footprint, we are providing the entire operation platform of the rest of the humanitarian community”.
If UNRWA left Gaza, he said, “it would weaken our collective ability to respond to unprecedented and acute humanitarian needs.”
The UN agency, created in 1949, employs around 30,000 people in the occupied Palestinian territories — including 13,000 in Gaza — as well as neighbouring Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
The company came under fire after Israel accused 12 of its employees of being involved in the October 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel.
Several countries have suspended aid, but the UN says Israel has provided no evidence.
The United Nations has launched an internal and independent investigation into these allegations.
The accusations were “feeding and fuelling anxiety among our staff” and were causing settlers and demonstrators in the occupied West Bank to target UNRWA personnel, said Lazzarini.
He said that calls for UNRWA to be dismantled were “a way to address the issue of refugee status without having to go through a political process,” and would be seen by Palestinians as a “betrayal by the international community”.
Mr Lazzarini insisted that UNRWA would remain an interim organization and that its aim would be to “deliver all services to a functioning government”. He is going to give a speech at the UN General Assembly on Monday.
