LONDON, (PIC)
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, wondered, on Sunday, if “the United Nations agency was paying the price for drawing attention to the plight of the residents of the Gaza Strip.”
This came in a press statement made by Lazzarini to the British newspaper Financial Times, “Are we paying the price for raising our voice in drawing attention to the plight of the people of Gaza, and to the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding before our eyes?”
The UN official said, “this has contributed to directing, accelerating, and amplifying criticism against us.”
“We will do our best as a humanitarian organization to continue our work to support the people of Gaza”, the UNRWA official pledged.
As of last January 30, 18 countries and the European Union had decided to suspend their funding to UNRWA, based on Israeli allegations that 12 of the agency’s employees participated in the Hamas October 7 attack on Gaza envelope settlements.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials have been attacking the UN agency. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen accused UNRWA as being part of Hamas’s “terrorist” infrastructure in Gaza, saying “Israel is working on removing the agency from Gaza because it is the problem and not the solution.”
UNRWA was established by a decision of the United Nations General Assembly in 1949 and authorized to provide assistance and protection to Palestine refugees in five regions: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, until a just solution to their problem is reached.
