UNRWA ‘very near’ possible breaking point in Gaza, head says
Lazzarini again warns famine, acute malnutrition could become a likelihood as winter approaches, given that people’s immune systems are already weak from harsh conditions in Strip
The UN relief agency for Palestinians is close to a possible breaking point for its operations in the Gaza Strip due to increasingly complicated conditions, its head said on Wednesday.
“I will not hide the fact that we might reach a point that we won’t be able to operate anymore,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told journalists at a news conference in Berlin.
“We are very near to a possible breaking point. When will it be? I don’t know. But we are very near to that,” he said.
He said the agency was facing a combination of a financial and political threats to its existence, in addition to difficulties in day-to-day operations, as aid is even more desperately needed against the threat of disease and famine.
He said there was a real risk, heading into winter, with people’s immune systems weakened, that famine or acute malnutrition could become a likelihood. Since the start of the war last year, many warnings of imminent famine have been found to have been exaggerated.
UNRWA provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
The only UN refugee agency established for a specific people, it has come under criticism for bestowing the status not just on those who lost their homes in 1948, but to all their descendants as well — a practice unheard of elsewhere.
The agency has long had tense relations with Israel but ties have deteriorated sharply since the Hamas terror group attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war.
Israeli leaders in January accused UNRWA staff of collaborating with Hamas operatives in Gaza, leading some donors to suspend funding, although many of those decisions have since been reversed.
During its operations in Gaza, the IDF found a Hamas data center located directly beneath UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City, in addition to numerous findings indicating the use of the agency’s assets for terror purposes.
The UN acknowledged in August that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in Hamas’s October attack and fired them.
And just weeks ago, an UNRWA school teacher, who had recently been placed on three months’ unpaid leave, was confirmed to have been the head of Hamas’s Lebanon branch, when he was eulogized by the terror group after he was killed along with family members in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon.
Lazzarini’s comments came amid a new Israeli offensive in the northern Gaza Strip to stop efforts by Hamas to regroup.
His remarks also came after it was revealed that the White House warned Israel it has one month to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or jeopardize the continued supply of US weapons.
Humanitarian assistance entering the Strip has plummeted in recent months, the White House told Israel in a private letter on Sunday, saying the developments call into question Israel’s commitment to use US weapons in line with international law.
The Times of Israel Community.