UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini attends a press conference on the last day of his mandate at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 31, 2026.
Archiv: Philippe Lazzarini
UNRWA head seeks investigation into killing of staff in Gaza war
Discussions are under way for a U.N. investigation into the killing of more than 390 employees in the two-year Gaza war, the head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday, making it the deadliest conflict in the global body‘s history.
„I believe that we need to have a panel – a high-level panel of experts to look into the killing of our staff,“ said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General at a press conference in Geneva on the last day of his term.
UNRWA Commissioner-General: The burning of UNRWA’s headquarters is an unprecedented attack on the United Nations
(January 25, 2ß26)
There are no limits to the defiance of the United Nations and international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
After having been stormed and demolished by the Israeli authorities, the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem has now been set on fire.
Israel’s NGO ban sets ‘dangerous precedent’ for humanitarian work: UNRWA
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, says Israel’s suspension of 37 aid organisations in Gaza shows “a troubling pattern of disregard for international humanitarian law”.
“This is a dangerous precedent,” Lazzarini wrote on social media platform X…..
Jerusalem Authorities Raid UNRWA Compound and Raise Israeli Flag
The raid on Monday, which Israeli authorities said was intended to collect municipal tax debts, escalates tensions between Israel and the United Nations in what is an already extremely fraught relationship.
Philippe Lazzarini, who heads UNRWA, said the compound was not in active use, but he said that it remains a United Nations location, exempt from search, seizure or taxation under international law. “To allow this represents a new challenge to international law, one that creates a dangerous precedent anywhere else the U.N. is present across the world,” he wrote on social media.
Gaza: International community must ‘match words with action’ now
Olga Cherevko, Spokesperson in Gaza for the UN aid coordination office OCHA, warned that history will not judge the international community “based on the speeches that we made” but rather on actions.
Speaking from Deir Al-Balah, she delivered a blunt message: “When Gaza burned, and children starved, and hospitals collapsed – did you act?”
She said this past Tuesday, Gaza City “was handed a death sentence”, with hundreds of thousands of battered civilians ordered to flee to an already overcrowded area where “even small animals have to search for spaces to squeeze between to move around.”
Gaza Famine Deaths Reach 420 as UN Warns of ‘Death Sentence’ on Gaza City
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that the famine in Gaza is the direct result of deliberate restrictions on humanitarian aid, compounded by the destruction of vital infrastructure and repeated Israeli attacks on relief operations. “In 30 years of humanitarian work, I have never encountered such blatant disregard for the protected status of humanitarian workers,” Lazzarini added.
Olga Cherevko, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), warned that Israel has effectively “imposed a death sentence” on Gaza City. Speaking via video link from Deir al-Balah to journalists at the UN headquarters in New York, she said Palestinians are left with no choice but “leave or die.”
#Gaza: more journalists killed today. Silencing the last remaining voices reporting about children dying silently and #famine with The world’s indifference & inaction is shocking. Like Hannah Arendt said: “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.“ This cannot be our future new norm.
Compassion must prevail.
Let us undo this manmade famine by:
– opening the gates without restrictions
– protecting journalists & humanitarian + health workers
Time for political will.
Not tomorrow, now
Gaza: Alarm over Israeli move to deregister NGOs
“Unless urgent action is taken…most international NGO partners could be de-registered by 9 September or sooner – forcing them to withdraw all international staff and preventing them from providing critical, lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Palestinians,” said UN and partner aid organizations that are known collectively as the Humanitarian Country Team in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
The UN understands that organizations must now submit, amongst others, details of representatives and all employees in-country, including Palestinian and foreign workers, with full identification and contact details.
In the face of Israel‘s genocide in Gaza, ongoing silence and inaction is complicity
For nearly two years, we have witnessed a live-streamed genocide. War crimes have been well-documented by journalists, rights groups, doctors and civilians. There’s enough evidence to sift through for decades to come.
Activists and celebrities have reminded the western world of their vow to “never again” allow something like this to happen. Countless social media campaigns have pleaded with the public to keep “all eyes on Rafah” and on Gaza.
But still the genocide persists. Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank have become more brazen and violent than ever.
Why is this happening? It’s not because Israel is a small beacon of democracy in the Middle East surrounded by enemies. Rather, it’s because Israel is a rogue state surrounded by capitulators who have allowed this to unfold.
“ ‚People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses‘: a colleague in #Gaza told me this morning.
Meanwhile, according to UNRWA latest findings: one in every five children is malnourished in Gaza City as cases increase every day.
When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food & care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold.
Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they don’t get the treatment they urgently need.
More than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have reportedly died of hunger.
This deepening crisis is affecting everyone, including those trying to save lives in the war-torn enclave.
UNRWA frontline health workers, are surviving on one small meal a day, often just lentils, if at all. They are increasingly fainting from hunger while at work.
When caretakers cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system is collapsing.
Parents are too hungry to care for their children.
Those who reach UNRWA clinics don’t have the energy, food, or means to follow medical advice.
Families are no longer coping, they are breaking down, unable to survive.
Their existence is threatened.
Allow humanitarian partners to bring unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
We, at UNRWA, have the equivalent of 6,000 loaded trucks of food & medical supplies in Jordan and Egypt.“
—UNRWA Commissioner-General @UNLazzarini
Any government in the world could expel the rogue state of Israel from the United Nations. None does.
(April 27, 2025)
It‘s not the world order that has failed the Palestinians. It‘s the world.
‘They’ll kill us all’: Gazans plead for intervention as Israeli attacks intensify
(April 7, 2025)
“We are civilians in our homes,” Al-Aqqad pleaded. “We don’t want to be displaced to unsafe areas. The army targets everyone without exception. We want the world to act and save us, otherwise they’ll kill us all.”
Any government in the world could expel the rogue state of Israel from the United Nations. None does.
(April 27, 2025)
It‘s not the world order that has failed the Palestinians. It‘s the world.
Gaza is a mirror reflecting the world‘s absolute shame: Opinion
Never in recent history has a civilian population been locked into a fenced strip of land – denied food, water, and fuel – while being bombed from air, land, and sea.
This is not siege. It is the world’s first televised extermination.
A concentration camp under constant aerial assault.
(…)
What is happening in Gaza does more than violate law – it obliterates it.
It tears through every principle of humanity, every treaty that claims to uphold it.
The world did not merely fail Gaza. It abandoned her. And in doing so, it exposed itself.
Gaza is not just a killing field.
She is a mirror – and in her reflection, we see our absolute, unvarnished shame.
Terror and chaos for Gaza’s people now entering the ‘death phase’
In an alert, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, relayed desperate testimonies from its colleagues who are also struggling to survive in the war-torn enclave.
“We’re in the death phase,” one UNRWA worker said. “Everything around people at the moment is death, whether it’s bombs or strikes, children wasting away in front of their eyes from malnourishment, from dehydration, and dying.”
Doctors and nurses who continue to work in the UN agency’s clinics and medical centres “are watching children disappear and die in front of their eyes, and there‘s absolutely nothing that they can do about it,” the worker continued.
Civilians ‘faced sniper and tank-fire’
The development comes after desperate Gazans seeking aid came under fire at the weekend “from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire”, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
In a detailed statement after the incident on Sunday 20 July, it explained that a 25-truck lorry convoy crossed the Zikim border point in northern Gaza “destined for starving communities”.
Shortly after passing the final checkpoint after the Zikim crossing point, the convoy encountered large crowds of civilians waiting to access food supplies. This was when the shooting began, leaving “countless” Gazans dead, WFP said, echoing reports by the health authorities.
Condemning the incident, WFP noted that the victims “were simply trying to access food to feed themselves and their families on the brink of starvation”. ….
Any government in the world could expel the rogue state of Israel from the United Nations. None does.
(April 27, 2025)
It‘s not the world order that has failed the Palestinians. It‘s the world.
UNRWA Situation Report #179 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem
On 9 July, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini posted on X (previously known as Twitter) that “Israeli officials state they plan yet another mass displacement of the Palestinian people in Gaza towards Rafah. This would de-facto create massive concentration camps at the border with Egypt for the Palestinians, displaced over and over across generations. This would also deprive Palestinians of any prospects for a better future in their homeland.”
According to OCHA, people are confined to ever-shrinking spaces, with over 86 per cent of the Gaza Strip now within the Israeli-militarized zone, under displacement orders, or where these overlap. The UN estimates that over 725,000 people have been displaced yet again since the breakdown of the ceasefire.
Any government in the world could expel the rogue state of Israel from the United Nations. None does.
(April 27, 2025)
It‘s not the world order that has failed the Palestinians. It‘s the world.
Any government in the world could expel the rogue state of Israel from the United Nations. None does.
(April 27, 2025)
It‘s not the world order that has failed the Palestinians. It‘s the world.
Around 2.4 percent of human beings in Gaza have been annihilated – will you do something about it or not?
Do you demand from any NGO, any government, from the UNRWA director Philippe Lazzarini, from the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to stop their unbearable whining and finally kick this fascist gang of Benyamin Netanyahu out of the United Nations?
Do you?
If not – GET OUT OF THE WAY!
Best,
Daniel
Any government in the world could expel the rogue state of Israel from the United Nations. None does.
It‘s not the world order that has failed the Palestinians. It‘s the world.
Unrwa chief says Israel‘s banning of operations will undermine Gaza ceasefire
Lazzarini told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the ban would „heighten instability and deepen despair in the occupied Palestinian territory at a critical moment“.
“The relentless assault on UNRWA is harming the lives and future of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory,“ he said.
“It is eroding their trust in the international community, jeopardising any prospect for peace and security.”
Unrwa chief condemns global inaction as Israeli ‚horrors‘ persist in Gaza
Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on 7 October 2023, 258 staff members from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have lost their lives, and at least 650 attacks on Unrwa facilities have been recorded. Additionally, 20 Unrwa workers have been abducted by Israel.
Lazzarini condemned the ongoing violence, stating, “This cannot become the new standard, and impunity cannot become the new norm.” His remarks highlight the growing frustration over the global community’s lack of action in halting Israel’s aggression which has been widely described by human rights organisation as genocidal.
Israel is a rogue nation. It should be removed from the United Nations
(October 15, 2024)
One rogue nation cannot declare war on the UN itself and continue to get away with it
Statement of UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini to the United Nations General Assembly
I have three urgent requests to prevent this devastating outcome:
First, I ask that Member States act to prevent the implementation of the legislation against UNRWA.
Changes to UNRWA’s mandate are the prerogative of the General Assembly, not individual Member States.
Second, I ask that Member States ensure that any plan for a political transition delineates UNRWA’s role.
The Agency must progressively conclude its mandate within the framework of a political solution, and hand over its services to an empowered Palestinian administration.
Finally, I ask that Member States maintain funding to UNRWA, and do not withhold or divert funds on the assumption that the Agency can no longer operate.
The cost of providing critical services, including education and healthcare, during a transition will be immense.
I must also alert Member States that abruptly dismantling the Agency will cost more than half a billion dollars in staff separation indemnities alone.
At General Assembly, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini urges Member States to defend UNRWA
(November 6, 2024)
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini addressed the UN General Assembly, describing a critical moment for the agency as new Israeli legislation threatens its operations. Lazzarini urged member states to oppose the legislation, support UNRWA’s continued operation, and ensure sustained funding to prevent a humanitarian disaster.