Geneva, Nov. 19, (dpa/GNA) – The future role of the United Nations’ relief agency in the Gaza Strip must be defined in the coming months, the group’s leader said on Monday, as the agency faces a looming Israeli ban on its operations.
Philippe Lazzarini, who leads the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said there is currently no viable alternative for his agency to provide aid and services to Palestinians.
A highly controversial Israeli law banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories is due to go into effect at the end of January.
Lazzarini, however, said that a functioning Palestinian state is among the only eventual realistic alternatives to UNRWA’s crucial operations providing aid and services for Palestinian refugees, including in war-torn Gaza.
He called for a clear political path toward an independent Palestinian state to be outlined.
There is no plan B in the UN family to replace UNRWA, he said, and no other UN organization could take over the tasks.
Lazzarini warned that, without a viable alternative, the end of UNRWA would create a vacuum in the Palestinian territories and even more breeding ground for extremism and hatred.
UNRWA’s mandate from the United Nations calls on the agency to fulfil tasks such as education and healthcare for Palestinian refugees. It has around 17,000 employees.
“Today we are all mobilized and struggling to make sure that the agency continue to provide that access to critical services beyond the end of January,” Lazzarini said. “For this we need to stop the implementation of this law.”
Representatives from the 29 countries that hold seats on the UNRWA Advisory Commission gathered in Geneva on Monday.
Antón Leis, the director of Spain’s international development agency and the chairman of the UNRWA Advisory Commission, said all of the countries are united in their condemnation of the Israeli ban on UNRWA and hope to use every diplomatic tool possible to convince Israel to reverse course.
GNA