GENEVA (dpa-AFX) – The head of the UN refugee agency UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, accuses Israeli forces within the government apparatus of concerted actions to hinder the work of the UN organization. The refugee agency could soon no longer fulfill the mandate given by the UN General Assembly, Lazzarini wrote in a letter to the President of the UN General Assembly on Thursday.
For example, according to him, Israeli authorities ordered UNRWA to vacate a vocational training center in East Jerusalem allocated by Jordan in 1952 and to pay a “usage fee” of $4.5 million. Efforts were also underway to oust UNRWA from its offices in East Jerusalem after 75 years. Customs authorities stopped clearing UNRWA materials and a bank blocked a UNRWA account. The visas for international employees who also work in the Gaza Strip have been limited to one to two months.
Lazzarini called on the UN General Assembly to reaffirm the mandate of the refugee agency and to provide the necessary financial resources. 16 countries had frozen their payments to UNRWA in recent weeks. This was preceded by Israeli allegations that UNRWA employees were involved in the massacres in Israel on October 7, 2023.
The UN General Assembly created UNRWA in 1949 and mandated it to “provide assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees pending a just and lasting solution to their plight”./oe/DP/he