The General Commissioner of the UN Agency for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, has alerted Tuesday that Israel’s decision to ban all the activities of the organization both in Israeli territory and in the Palestinian territories Occupied will be “a complete disaster.”
Lazzarini, who has lamented that this will put the danger of the agency’s work and will contribute to an “increase in instability and despair” of the Palestinian population, has warned that it is measured, which will come into force on Thursday, will endanger ” The international humanitarian response “.
“This will hinder the agency’s operations at a time of vital importance (…) and will worsen the already catastrophic situation that the Palestinians face in Gaza and the West Bank,” he said during his speech before a meeting of the meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
This measure only “will undermine the fire and sabotage the process of political recovery and transition” in the enclave, has asserted before expressing its desire that the high fire between Hamas and Israel “remains.” “We hope that the suffering in Gaza ends,” he said.
“The agency is vital to support the local population and, even so, in two days our operations in the occupied territories will be seen hard as the new Israeli laws that prohibit our activity,” he lamented.
He also denounced that this “continuous assault on UNRWA affects the lives and future of the Palestinians and erodes their confidence in the international community, questioning their hope of finally achieving peace and security.”
“Political attacks against the agency leave the desire to deprive the Palestinians of refugee status. The objective is to deny their right to self -determination and eliminate their history and identity,” he said before defending that “their right to have protection and Assistance not part of the UNRWA mandate;
Lazzarini has also recalled that the objective of the UNRWA has always been “to have a temporary character”, but has emphasized that most Palestinians go to her “to ask for help.”
However, the Israeli government has defended the need to prohibit the agency’s activity because they consider that among its workers hide members of Hamas that endanger the security of the population of Israel, especially after the attacks of October 7, 2023.
USA talks about “exaggeration”
For his part, Dorothy Shea, a member of the United States delegation to the UN, has assured that the UNRWA “exaggerates the supposed effects” of the Israeli decision of “suspending all contact with the agency.” “To say that Israel’s decision leads to the absolute cessation of humanitarian aid is irresponsible and dangerous,” he said.
“The United States supports Israel’s decision”, as Shea said during the same meeting, in which he has warned that the accusations expressed by the Israeli authorities about alleged links between the Palestinian armed group and the UNRWA “are very serious ”
Shea has taken the opportunity to influence “UNRWA is not and have not been the only option to deliver humanitarian aid in Gaza.” “Many other agencies have carried out this work,” he said before remembering that the “credibility of the UNRWA has been questioned”, especially from Hamas’s attacks.
“Gaza must completely demilitarize and Hamas must lack any role,” he said before asking the countries of the region to contribute to “reform” the Middle East. “The United States will put your part to create a new future,” he has settled.
Russia reproaches its permissiveness to Israel
For their part, the Moscow authorities have reproached Washington to have allowed Israel to skip “so blatantly” the most elementary international laws. “He would not have dared if he had not felt absolute military and economic support from the United States,” they said.
“After fifteen months of climbing conflict, he has provided weapons with which he has killed Palestinian civilians and has not allowed any decision of the Security Council that could interfere with Israel’s plans in Gaza,” recalled the Ambassador of Russia Before the United Nations, Vasili Nebenzia.
“We call our colleagues in Washington to enter and apply the necessary pressure on Israel to avoid even greater suffering for Palestinian civilians,” he urged.
Nebenzia has remarked that the laws that prohibit UNRWA to operate are “a hard blow to the perspectives of a very fragile truce”, in which everyone should be interested, he said.