“It is with profound regret that I must now inform you that UNRWA has reached a breaking point,” chief Philippe Lazzarini said, as donors freeze funding, Israel exerts pressure to dismantle the agency and humanitarian needs soar.
“The Agency’s ability to fulfill the mandate given through General Assembly resolution 302 is now seriously threatened,” he said in a letter to the assembly.
That is the resolution under which the agency was founded in 1949, following the creation of Israel.
UNRWA employs some 30,000 people working in the occupied territories, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
Several countries — including the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan — have suspended funding to UNRWA in response to Israeli allegations that some of its staff participated in the October 7 attack on Israel.
In an interview published over the weekend, Lazzarini said $438 million has been frozen — the equivalent of more than half of expected funding for 2024. He said Israel was waging a concerted effort to destroy UNRWA.
The UN fired the employees accused by Israel and has begun an internal probe of UNRWA.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also tasked an independent panel with assessing whether UNRWA acts neutrally in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Lazzarini asserted Thursday that Israel has provided no evidence against the 12 former employees it accuses, but 16 countries have suspended funding anyway.
“I have cautioned donors and host countries that without new funding, UNRWA operations across the region will be severely compromised from March,” he said.
He added: “I fear we are on the edge of a monumental disaster with grave implications for regional peace, security and human rights.”
The war started after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Hamas militants also took about 250 hostages — 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 29,410 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by Gaza’s health ministry.
Israeli claims that UN aid agency staff took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack have been cast into doubt by a US intelligence report.
Israel suggested that 12 people working for the UN Relief and Works Agency were involved in the assault that claimed the lives of at least 1,200 people, and previously said as many as 10 percent of UNRWA employees in Gaza had links to Hamas.
Several countries, including the US, subsequently suspended funds to UNRWA, but an intelligence report seen by the Wall Street Journal has suggested “low confidence” in the veracity of Israel’s claims.
The report said although Israel’s accusations against the 12 individuals were considered credible, US intelligence services could not independently confirm them.
The employment of nine staff working for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — who were alleged by Israel to have aided Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks — was ended in an “exceptional, swift decision” even before corroborating the allegations against them, said the agency’s chief on Friday.
UNRWA’s Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini explained that he followed a “reverse due process” in terminating the contracts, and did not probe Israel’s claims before the dismissals, reported The Guardian on Friday.
Addressing a press conference in Jerusalem, Lazzarini said: “No, the investigation is going on now,” when asked if he had probed whether there was any evidence against the staff.
“I could have suspended them, but I have fired them. And now I have an investigation, and if the investigation tells us that this was wrong, in that case at the UN we will take a decision on how to properly compensate (them),” he was quoted as saying. The termination decision was due to the explosive nature of the claims, he added.
He said the agency was already facing “fierce and ugly attacks” at a time when it was providing aid to nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Lazzarini said: “Indeed, I have terminated without due process because I felt at the time that not only the reputation but the ability of the entire agency to continue to operate and deliver critical humanitarian assistance was at stake if I did not take such a decision.”
Discussing the allegations, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a press conference on Thursday: “When there were indications that Hamas had infiltrated UNRWA, I acted immediately in order to guarantee that we do whatever is necessary for UNRWA to be able to avoid any kind of infiltration by Hamas.”
According to the UN chief, the organization received allegations in relation to 12 names, and those allegations were credible.
Guterres said: “Now, if the allegations are credible, you are dealing with a high risk. And when you are dealing with a high risk, and you have rules and regulations that allow you to do so, you, I believe, should do what I did — which was to terminate immediately the contracts based on the so-called best interests of the organization, which is what the rules and regulations allow me to do.”
He elaborated that the investigation team was immediately on the ground, and added: “And if I had made any mistake, it can be corrected in the future.”
He stressed the organization could not run the risk of not acting immediately as the accusations were related to criminal activities that were dangerous.
Guterres revealed that he was surprised to read in the press that the military and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel were unwilling to share information with the UN.
He said: “Even worse, I read in the press that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t expect me to act. I mean, I can’t imagine that this was a trap.”
According to The Guardian’s report, the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services is investigating the allegations and is due to report its preliminary findings within weeks. A separate independent review of the agency’s risk management processes is being led by the former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.
Lazzarini said the agency was operating in a “hostile” environment and it had faced new “restrictions” since Israel’s allegations were made public.
In addition, the report doubted suggestions that many UNRWA staff collaborated with Hamas beyond coordinating to facilitate the entry and distribution of aid in Gaza, once again citing a lack of evidence for Israel’s accusations. It also said Israel had not “shared the raw intelligence behind its assessments with the US.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in January that Israel’s claims against UNRWA staff were “highly, highly credible.”
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of UNRWA, said earlier this month that evidence had not been investigated before nine of the accused staff members were dismissed from their roles.
“I could have suspended them, but I have fired them. And now I have an investigation, and if the investigation tells us that this was wrong, in that case at the UN we will take a decision on how to properly compensate (them),” he told a press conference in Jerusalem.
UNRWA is one of the only sources of aid to Palestinians in Gaza as Israel continues its ground and air offensive in the enclave.
So far, around 30,000 Palestinians are thought to have died, and many more have been injured and displaced.
