UNRWA head says ‘Extraordinary, deep anxiety’ in Gaza over Rafah attack 

Anjali Sharma

GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 1st May. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini on Tuesday said that ordinary Gazans remain in a “constant state of trauma” over an impending full-scale Israeli attack on Rafah after growing number of strikes there.

Philippe Lazzarini told journalists in Geneva that “There is an extraordinary, deep anxiety prevailing right now in Gaza because the question everybody asks is whether, yes or no, there would be a military offensive”.

UN aid coordination office, OCHA reported “intensive strikes on Rafah” that caused dozens of fatalities Mr. Lazzarini said a full-scale invasion of Rafah currently home to around one million displaced Gazans depended on “whether or not a ceasefire deal will be reached this week”.

He said that despite renewed international pressure for a humanitarian pause, including from the United States, no breakthrough in negotiations has yet been announced.

Philippe Lazzarini said that Gaza’s hunger crisis has not gone away, and he pointed out to “a spreading hunger and a looming famine”, especially in the northern part of the enclave.

“The good news is that my colleagues have reported that there is more food available in the market so increase the availability but it still does not mean that the food is accessible just because there is absolutely no cash circulating in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.”

OCHA in regular update noted that the situation remains dire in Rafah, where residents “face severe challenges in accessing basic services such as healthcare, clean water and sanitation facilities”.

UN aid coordination office added that the coastal water board had warned that the entire water and sanitation system was “nearing collapse”.

Gaza utility and the UNICEF unveiled a solar-operated water desalination station in Rafah last week to address rising needs for safe drinking water,. It can produce potable water for 400 families at a school sheltering displaced people.

UNICEF and over a dozen humanitarian partners have expanded outpatient treatment services for acutely malnourished children to more than 100 sites across Gaza, including over 50 in Rafah and three dozen in the north to help meet desperate nutrition needs.

Mr. Lazzarini said that more humanitarian supplies have entered Gaza in past weeks than in previous months, but it is “still far from enough to reverse the negative trend we have seen”.

UNRWA’s requests to send aid convoys continue to be “systematically denied” by Israel, he continued,

He added that the laborious process of having to unload and reload supplies to allow for inspection increased delays that were already impacted by operating hours of the crossing into Gaza that vary “from one day to another”.

Lazzarini said that the crossing into Gaza could be closed at a moment’s notice and “many times a week” by the Israeli authorities, “because they are just dumping released detainees or dumping sometimes (Palestinians’) bodies have been taken to Israel and back to the Gaza Strip”.

He renewed his call for the “unconditional and immediate release” of all Israeli hostages held in Gaza, Lazzarini also underscored deep concerns for all Gazans detained by the Israeli Security Forces.

Mr. Lazzarini described being “routinely rounded up, stripped to their underwear and loaded into trucks, blindfolded and bound”.

He said that once arrested, the detainees remained incommunicado and faced “shocking inhumane treatment, including water boarding, severe beatings, attacks by dogs and being forced to hold that stress position for hours, sometimes 12 hours, 24 hours”.

He noted that the detainees who Israel suspected of Hamas affiliation were forced to wear a diaper instead of being able to go to the toilet and were “pressured” to state that UNRWA was “politically affiliated” in the Gaza Strip, in violation of its neutral status.

Gazan health authorities reported 34,500 Palestinians have been killed and over 77,700 wounded in Israeli attacks since 7 October.

Some 182 UNRWA staff have been killed and over 160 of the agency’s premises have been damaged or totally destroyed, Mr. Lazzarini reported.

“Most of these premises were sheltering displaced people and more than 400 people have been killed in these premises,” he said.

He deplored the use of these facilities for military purposes after they were vacated, many in northern Gaza.

Mr. Lazzarini insisted that this “blatant disregard of the United Nations” must be investigated once the war ends to prevent it becoming the “new standard” in warfare.

He stressed the agency’s neutrality, backed by the published findings of the Colonna inquiry, and noted that a separate UN investigation into 19 individuals had completely cleared one staff member of any wrongdoing and had been paused into four other cases, since no further information had been provided to justify the accusations to unproven allegations of Hamas collusion involving UNRWA staff.

He added that unfounded allegations that have circulated since the outbreak of hostilities that hundreds of UNRWA staff were members of armed groups, Mr. Lazzarini said “for the moment, these were just ‘statements’ lacking any substantiating information.”