Briefing reporters in Geneva from central Gaza, UNRWA senior emergency officer Louise Wateridge warned that amid looming famine in the Gaza Strip and as winter approaches, those forcibly displaced are sleeping on the floor in makeshift shelters surrounded by sewage. “We are extremely concerned when the rains come to the...
Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini made an impassioned plea to protect the UN agency for Palestine refugees at the General Assembly’s meeting on UNRWA’s fate days after Israel informed the world body of new laws to ban it as bombings and displacement continued on Wednesday across Gaza and Lebanon, with UN officials...
The Israeli Parliament, known as the Knesset, recently approved two laws banning UNRWA from operating in its territory and prohibiting officials from having any contact with the agency. Israel has officially informed the President of the UN General Assembly of the adoption of the new legislation. The letter says all...
The Israeli Parliament, known as the Knesset, adopted two bills on Monday banning UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA from operating in its territory and prohibiting authorities from having any contact with it. “UNRWA is indispensable in delivering the urgent, life-saving assistance that 2.2 million people in Gaza urgently need,” UNICEF...
What do the laws say? The bills, approved overwhelmingly by Israeli parliamentarians (92 in favour, 10 against) on Monday, would prohibit the country’s authorities from having any contact with UNRWA, and bar the agency from operating within Israel itself. The passage of aid into Gaza and the West Bank requires close...
UNRWA was established by UN Member States in 1949 to carry out direct relief and development programmes for Palestinian people who lost their homes following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. UN Photo has curated a collection from its archive that follows the agency’s critical work since it began operating throughout the...
Our live coverage ranged from the Security Council and UN Headquarters to dispatches from across the Middle East as tensions escalated and the war on Gaza and Lebanon continued in the shadows of a new Israeli ban on UNRWA, the agency serving nearly six million Palestine refugees in the region....
Echoing UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s warning late Monday that the development would likely have “devastating consequences” as UNRWA is the principal deliverer of aid relief inside the war-torn enclave, UN human rights chief Volker Türk called the Knesset move “deeply troubling for many reasons”. In Geneva, spokesperson for the UN...
“We can confirm that an UNRWA vehicle has been hit in Deir Al-Balah,” a spokesperson confirmed. “So far, we have reports one UNRWA staff member was killed.” Since the deadly Hamas-led invasion of Israel a year ago triggered the ongoing war, almost 48,000 people in Gaza have been killed during...
UNRWA staff report that they cannot find food, water or medical care, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X. ‘Just waiting to die’ “The smell of death is everywhere as bodies are left lying on the roads or under the rubble. Missions to clear the bodies or provide humanitarian assistance are denied,”...
In the first week of October alone, close to 25,000 people fled to eastern Chad, marking the highest weekly influx this year. This follows months of intensifying violence in Darfur, and Chad now hosts over 600,000 Sudanese refugees, which is more than any other country in the region. Since the conflict...
“Throughout the night, I spoke to a colleague sheltering in the compound who told me, ‘We miraculously survived, the fire caught everywhere even the tent where we were sleeping burnt. The scene is terrifying,’” said Louise Wateridge, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA. Images shared by UNRWA...