UNRWA..Stop the violent campaign against us!

The war in Gaza has exposed blatant disdain for the UN mission, including disgraceful attacks on staff, facilities and operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. These attacks must stop, and the world must hold their perpetrators accountable. As I write these words, our agency has confirmed the killing of at least 192 UNRWA staff in Gaza. More than 170 UNRWA buildings were damaged or destroyed. Furthermore, UNRWA-run schools were demolished, and some 450 displaced people were killed while seeking shelter in UNRWA schools and other buildings. Since October 7, Israeli security forces have arrested UNRWA employees in Gaza who said they had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment while detained in the Strip and in Israel. UNRWA staff are also regularly subjected to harassment and insults at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. However, UNRWA is not the only UN agency facing danger.

Last April, vehicles belonging to the World Food Program and UNICEF were exposed to fire, apparently unintentionally, but despite coordination with the Israeli authorities. Israel has long been hostile to UNRWA, but – in the wake of the hateful October 7 attacks – it unleashed a campaign to equate UNRWA with Hamas and portray the UN agency as supporting extremism. In a new dimension to this campaign, the Israeli government made serious allegations that UNRWA employees were involved in the Hamas attack. There is no doubt that individuals accused of criminal acts, including the deplorable attack against Israel, should be subject to investigation. This is exactly what the United Nations is doing; These individuals must be held accountable through criminal prosecution and punished if their involvement is proven. The Office of Internal Oversight Services, the highest investigative body within the United Nations system, is supervising this investigation. The office is currently investigating allegations against 19 of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza. However, a distinction must be made between the behavior of individuals and the agency’s mission to serve Palestinian refugees. Therefore, it is neither fair nor impartial to attack the UNRWA mission based on these allegations. Outside of these cases, there were other allegations of collusion with Hamas, allegations that I believe made UN humanitarian personnel and assets legitimate targets — in the eyes of some of them — which constitutes a danger to UN staff everywhere.

Therefore, the world must deal firmly with the unlawful attacks targeting the United Nations, not only for the sake of Gaza and the Palestinians but for the sake of all countries. There is no doubt that the adoption by the UN Security Council last week of Resolution 2730 on the protection of humanitarian workers is a welcome development.

In fact, the international community has means to deal with the commission of international crimes, such as the International Criminal Court. However, the scale and scope of the attacks targeting United Nations personnel and buildings in the occupied Palestinian territories during the past seven months merit the establishment of a special, independent investigative body, through a Security Council or General Assembly resolution, to ascertain the facts and identify those responsible for the attacks targeting its agencies. Such a body could ensure accountability and, more importantly, help reaffirm the sanctity of international law. Therefore, we must vigorously defend the institutions of the United Nations and the values ​​they represent before symbolically tearing down the founding Charter of the United Nations. But this can only be achieved through the work of the countries of the world in accordance with principles and everyone’s commitment to peace and justice.

Philippe Lazzarini*

Published by special arrangement with the New York Times Service.

*Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)