Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign destined to destroy UNRWAstated the director of the agency of the UN for the palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzariniwho assured that the requests for his resignation are part of the pressure from the Israeli government.
“We are currently facing an expanded and concerted campaign by Israel aimed at destroying UNRWA,” Lazzarini declared in an interview published today by the Swiss journalistic group Tamedia.
“This is a long-term political objective, because it is believed that if the aid agency is abolished, the situation of the Palestinian refugees and, with it, the right of return will be resolved once and for all,” he explained.
In that regard, he cited measures in the Israeli Parliament, initiatives to eliminate the agency’s Value Added Tax exemption and orders for contractors at the Israeli port of Ashdod “to stop handling certain food deliveries for Unrwa.”
Lazzarini claims that more than 150 agency facilities have been attacked since the war in the Gaza Strip began.
Israel called on Lazzarini to resign following claims that a Hamas Islamist movement tunnel had been discovered under its evacuated Gaza City headquarters.
Lazzarini specified that the tunnel was 20 meters underground and that UNRWA, as a humanitarian organization, did not have the capacity to examine what was underground in Gaza.
He also said that Israel was the only one calling for his resignation and that there was “no reason” to accede to the request of a single UN member state, “especially since my resignation would not improve the situation in Unrwa.”
“The criticism has nothing to do with me, but with the organization as a whole,” he said, according to the AFP news agency.
The Gaza war began with the Hamas attack on October 7, which caused the death of some 1,200 people and the kidnapping of some 240, including twenty Argentine nationals.
The subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza has since killed at least 28,775 people, mostly women and children, according to the Palestinian enclave’s Health Ministry.
Source: Ambito
