No alternative to UNRWA in Gaza besides Israel, agency chief says

The only alternative to the UN Palestinian agency’s work in Gaza is to allow Israel to run services there, its chief tells reporters, repeating calls for countries to resist an Israeli ban on the organization.

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general, is in Geneva for a strategy meeting with donors, after it was banned by Israel from operating there last month in what he said is one of the darkest moments in the agency’s history.

“I have drawn the attention of the member states that now the clock is ticking…. We have to stop or prevent the implementation of this bill,” he tells reporters, saying there is no alternative to the agency’s services in Gaza besides allowing Israel to take them over.

Israel has worked to blackball the agency after repeated revelations of its ties to Hamas.