UNRWA chief seeks probe into killing of hundreds of staff in Gaza war

The outgoing head of the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees says he wants an investigation into the killing of nearly 400 UNRWA staff during the Gaza war.

“I believe that we need to have a panel… a high-level panel of experts to look into the killing of our staff,” Philippe Lazzarini tells reporters in Geneva.

Speaking at a press conference on the last day on the job as UNRWA Commissioner-General, the 62-year-old Swiss national condemns the fact that “more than 390” of the agency’s staff had been killed since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza in October 2023.

“Many others have sustained life-changing injuries or have been arbitrarily detained and tortured,” he says. He states that an investigation is needed into the killing not just of UNRWA employees but also of other UN staff, stressing: “There have been other UN colleagues who have been also killed.”

“And we have to look also at the extraordinary, large-scale destruction of the agency, of UN premises in Gaza,” says Lazzarini.

Israel alleged during the war that some 10% of UNRWA’s 12,000 Gazan employees had ties to Palestinian terror groups, with some actively participating in the atrocities of October 7. It also found several Hamas facilities located directly underneath multiple UNRWA facilities throughout the war.