UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has urged that his agency be entrusted with leading Gaza’s postwar recovery, even as global scrutiny mounts over its links to Hamas.
“UNRWA, with its thousands of Palestinian personnel, has the capacity, expertise and community trust required to provide healthcare, education and other public services to a devastated population,” Lazzarini wrote in an opinion piece for The Guardian.
He emphasized that “for decades, the agency’s teachers, doctors and engineers have formed a vital part of a functioning system of public services for millions of Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the region.”
Citing a recent International Court of Justice advisory opinion, Lazzarini said the court “reaffirmed the professionalism of UNRWA’s staff, underlined the agency’s indispensable humanitarian role and concluded that UNRWA remains an impartial and neutral actor.”
However, those assurances stand in stark contrast to the evidence Israel has presented linking UNRWA employees to the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre. Israeli intelligence revealed that several agency staffers participated in the slaughter, distributing ammunition, kidnapping a woman, and directly joining the attack at Kibbutz Be’eri, where 97 people were killed.
In response to the revelations, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed a panel headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna to review the allegations. When the group issued its findings in April, it admitted to identifying “neutrality-related issues” within UNRWA but argued that Israel had not yet provided sufficient proof that large numbers of its employees belonged to terror groups.
Testimonies have continued to emerge since then. Emily Damari, an Israeli woman freed after 470 days as a hostage in Gaza, disclosed that she was imprisoned in a facility operated by UNRWA.
Adding to the controversy, USAID reported in April 2025 that the United Nations had actively blocked an American probe into connections between UNRWA’s Gaza staff and Hamas.
Despite mounting evidence and criticism from both Israel and Washington, the International Court of Justice ruled last month that Israel must continue to permit humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza through UN agencies — including UNRWA — a decision that reignited anger among Israeli officials and their allies.
{Matzav.com}
He definitely should have a role in the new, developing Gaza. He should clean the stables of their donkeys and bathe them each evening. His living quarters should be in a dark tunnel with limited oxygen to breathe.
UNRWA has long been a staunch affiliate of Hamas. Only the blind miss that, or those who choose to ignore truth. UN vehicles were used for terror in Gaza as well as in Lebanon. This is proven by photos, long before anyone could have doctored pictures with AI. All UN facilities were shared with terrorists, their weapons, and stockpiles. The UN has become a terrir supporter, and are to be considered terrorists. It should be located outside of US.