Israel is waging a concerted campaign aimed at destroying UNRWA, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees claims in an interview published today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Philippe Lazzarini says calls for his resignation were part of the Israeli government\u2019s push.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight now we are dealing with an expanded, concerted campaign by Israel aimed at destroying UNRWA,\u201d he tells the Swiss newspaper group Tamedia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is a long-term political goal because it is believed that if the aid agency is abolished, the status of the Palestinian refugees will be resolved once and for all \u2014 and with it, the right of return. There is a much larger political goal behind this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust look at the number of actions Israel is taking against UNRWA,\u201d the main aid body in the Gaza Strip, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He cites measures in the Israeli parliament, moves to remove the agency\u2019s VAT exemption and orders for contractors at Israel\u2019s port of Ashdod to \u201cstop handling certain food deliveries for UNRWA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd all these demands come from the government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, Lazzarini says more than 150 UNRWA installations have been hit since the Gaza war began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel has called for Lazzarini to step down following the discovery that at least 12 UNRWA staffers directly took part in the October 7 massacres and hostage-taking and at least another 30 provided assistance. Several thousand of them are affiliated with terror organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel also discovered a Hamas tunnel housing a major server center under UNRWA\u2019s evacuated Gaza City headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lazzarini said the tunnel was 20 meters below ground and UNRWA as a humanitarian organization did not have the capabilities to examine what was underground in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tunnel was found to be drawing electricity from the headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also said Israel was alone in calling for him to quit and there was \u201cno reason\u201d to comply with a single UN member state\u2019s demand for him to go, \u201cespecially since my resignation would not improve the situation at UNRWA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe criticisms are not concerned with me personally, but with the organization as a whole. The calls for resignation are part of the campaign to destroy UNRWA,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel has long argued that UNRWA perpetuates antisemitism and glorifies terrorism in its schools. The recent allegations have led several donor countries to announce funding freezes, leading to concerns that the agency, which says it is the main conduit for aid for millions in the Strip amid the Israel-Hamas war, could stop operating in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East within weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Source: The Times of Israel)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel is waging a concerted campaign aimed at destroying UNRWA, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees claims in an interview published today. Philippe Lazzarini says calls for his resignation were part of the Israeli government\u2019s push. \u201cRight now we are dealing with an expanded, concerted campaign by Israel aimed at destroying UNRWA,\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":8491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[307,185,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-news","category-palestinian-affairs","category-172"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8815,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8814\/revisions\/8815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}