Lazzarini warns of the dangers of UNRWA's collapse, and Hamas calls for escalating global popular movement to reject genocide and starvation

The Commissioner-General of UNRWA said that the agency, its employees and millions of Palestinian refugees are going through a critical time, calling on UN member states to work to prevent the implementation of Israeli legislation related to UNRWA, while the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas called for an escalation of global popular movement in rejection of the continued war of extermination committed by Israel on the Gaza Strip and the starvation policy, especially in the northern governorate.

In his speech before the Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly, Lazzarini said: “In clear defiance of the UN Charter, General Assembly and Security Council resolutions and binding orders from the International Court of Justice, the State of Israel is unilaterally acting to change the established parameters for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Philippe Lazzarini pointed out that the Israeli parliament last month passed legislation that could end the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the occupied Palestinian territory within three months.

He said that implementing the legislation would have disastrous consequences, "In Gaza, dismantling UNRWA would lead to the collapse of the UN humanitarian response, which relies heavily on UNRWA's infrastructure."

Lazzarini stressed that dismantling the agency would not end the refugee status of the Palestinians, which would continue separately from the agency, but he warned that this would greatly harm the lives and future of the Palestinians.

The UN official spoke about the unique mandate given to UNRWA by the UN General Assembly, to directly provide what amounts to public government services, including education for more than half a million children, and primary health care. UNRWA also provides human development services to Palestine refugees in the absence of a Palestinian state.

She explained that these protests come "in rejection of the continued Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip, in condemnation of the siege of its north and the persistence of the war of extermination and starvation against civilians from our Palestinian people, and in exposing and denouncing the American, British and German support for it."

She called for active participation in these protests and "pressure by all means until the aggression stops and the genocide ends."

Recently, international and UN organizations warned against officially declaring famine in the northern Gaza Strip as a result of the ongoing genocide since October 5, which coincides with a comprehensive military siege that has prevented food, water, and medicine supplies from entering the Strip.

In the past weeks, a real crisis has begun to loom in the central and southern Gaza Strip, due to the depletion of flour and basic materials in the markets and homes of Palestinians, forcing them to use spoiled flour to feed their families, and to search for unhealthy alternatives.

The residents of Gaza and the North have already suffered from a real "famine" in light of the scarcity of food, water, medicine and fuel, due to the siege imposed by Israel on the two governorates since the start of its ground operation on October 27, 2023, which caused the death of a number of children and the elderly.

With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving about 147,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.

Israel continues its massacres, ignoring the UN Security Council resolution to end them immediately, and the International Court of Justice’s orders to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Source: Agencies