International Courant
WASHINGTON
The top of the UN Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) mentioned Thursday that Israeli assaults in opposition to the company should cease.
Philippe Lazzarini mentioned the Israeli conflict within the Gaza Strip “has produced a blatant disregard for the mission” of the UN, together with assaults on workers, services and operations of the UNRWA.
“These assaults should cease and the world should act to carry the perpetrators accountable,” he wrote in an opinion piece printed within the New York Occasions.
He mentioned UNRWA employees are often harassed and humiliated at Israeli checkpoints within the West Financial institution, together with East Jerusalem.
Lazzarini famous that no less than 192 UNRWA workers have been killed in Gaza and greater than 170 UNRWA premises have been broken or destroyed.
“UNRWA shouldn’t be the one U.N. company that faces hazard. In April, gunfire hit World Meals Program and UNICEF autos, apparently inadvertently however regardless of coordination with the Israeli authorities,” mentioned Lazzarini.
He mentioned Israeli officers are threatening the work of the company and delegitimizing it by “successfully characterizing it as a terrorist group that fosters extremism and labeling U.N. leaders as terrorists who collude with Hamas.
“By doing so, they’re making a harmful precedent of routine focusing on of U.N. employees and premises,” mentioned Lazarrini. “If we tolerate such assaults within the context of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, we can’t uphold humanitarian rules in different conflicts around the globe,” he mentioned.
He additionally mentioned after the assaults of Oct. 7, Israel unleashed a marketing campaign to equate UNRWA with Hamas and depict the company as selling extremism.
“In a brand new dimension to this marketing campaign, the Israeli authorities made severe allegations that UNRWA employees have been concerned within the Hamas assault,” mentioned the UNRWA chief. “We should meaningfully defend U.N. establishments and the values they symbolize earlier than the symbolic shredding of the constitution establishing the United Nations. This could solely be achieved by means of principled motion by the nations of the world and a dedication by all to peace and justice.”
Israel has launched a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, killing greater than 36,170 folks and injuring 81,400 others.
Almost eight months into the Israeli conflict, huge swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of meals, clear water and medication.
Israel is accused of genocide on the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ).
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