UN agency for Palestinians facing its ‘darkest hour’, UNRWA chief says

Philippe Lazzarini calls on the United Nations to prevent the ban on UNRWA in Israel and the occupied territories.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is facing its “darkest hour” and requires ongoing support from UN members after Israel’s decision to ban the organisation, its chief has said.

“Without intervention by member states, UNRWA will collapse, plunging millions of Palestinians into chaos,” Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s commissioner-general, told the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.

He called on the UN – which created UNRWA in 1949 – to prevent implementation of the ban on the organisation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

In a statement on Monday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it cancelled a cooperation agreement from 1967 which provided the legal basis of the country’s relations with UNRWA.

“UNRWA – the organisation whose employees participated in the October 7 massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives – is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution,” said Israel Katz, the country’s newly appointed defence minister, who was foreign minister at the time.