A “dangerous campaign” is underway to end UNRWA operations, the chief told the UN Security Council

A “dangerous campaign” is underway to end UNRWA operations, the chief told the UN Security Council

The head of the UN’s main aid agency in Gaza (UNRWA) has said that a “dangerous campaign” is underway to end its operations, warning of “serious implications for international peace and security.”

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that the agency was “denied permission to deliver this aid and save lives.”

UNRWA has come under fire since Israel claimed that some of its workers were involved in the October 7 Hamas attack. Israel has long campaigned for UNRWA, the main distributor of aid in Gaza, to be disbanded. Israel has also banned UNRWA from operating in northern Gaza.

More than a dozen countries pulled funding for UNRWA after the allegations, some of which have resumed contributions.

“The dissolution of UNRWA will have lasting effects. In the short term, it will deepen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and accelerate starvation,” said Lazzarini.
“In the long term, it will undermine the transition from the ceasefire to the ‘day after’ by depriving the traumatized population of essential services.”
Lazzarini said children “bear the brunt of this war,” with more than 17,000 separated from their families and “have faced the horrors of Gaza alone.”

He also warned that “man-made famine is tightening its grip” across Gaza.