Photo: Xinhua/Evan Schneider/UN
UNITED NATIONS, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), addresses the informal session of the UN General Assembly on UNRWA at the UN headquarters in New York on March 4, 2024 warned against attempts to liquidate the agency.
Lazzarini expressed concern at the UN General Assembly about a "deliberate and coordinated campaign" to stop the agency's activities, amid allegations by Israel that the agency is harbouring more than 450 "military operatives" from Hamas and other groups.
"UNRWA is facing a deliberate and coordinated campaign to undermine its work and ultimately shut it down," Lazzarini said.
UNRWA, which is crucial to humanitarian aid in Gaza, is "operating hand-to-mouth" after a major funding stoppage prompted by Israel's accusation against 12 UNRWA staff of involvement in a Hamas attack, the UNRWA chief said.
Lazzarini warned the media the same day that "the worst is yet to come for UNRWA and its beneficiaries."
"We are in a situation where there is a political decision to liquidate UNRWA," he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement that there is "no place for UNRWA in Gaza" and attempts to block and evict UNRWA staff from its premises "in order to liquidate the agency."
He confirmed that an as yet unpublished UNRWA report will document the experiences of those released from Israeli prisons since October last year, including UNRWA staff who "have been traumatised by their suffering".
"This is a very wide range of ill-treatment, and we heard stories of people who were systematically humiliated, forced to bare their bodies, and subjected to verbal and psychological abuse," he said, giving a brief overview of the report's findings.
Xinhua/gnews.cz-JaV_07
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