The head of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, He caught the attention to the difficult financial situation faced by the agency and called the international community to maintain its political and financial support until you can transfer the services provided to trained public institutions.
In a press conference in Berlin, Lazzarini warned that the agency counts until the end of this year with some 200 million dollars To provide their services, but only to pay the payrolls of your staff needs 60 million per month. In this regard, he stressed that the financial situation is “extremely serious”to the point that the cash flow is already managed weekly, the place of monthly or annually, without the ability to plan beyond September.
The situation has aggravated since 2024, after USAits main donor, and Swedenbetween the first ten, they would suspend their contributions following the accusations of Israel, which alleges that a few workers of the UNRWA would have links with the Palestinian armed features. “UNRWA has become one of the objectives of this war, which aspires to strip the Palestinians of their refugee status, ”he said after remembering how Israel has banned the agency’s activities in East Jerusalem, the city’s employed sector.
Essential services
The agency continues to provide essential services in all occupied territories. In Gazawhere the Israeli massacres of civilians and their hunger policy continue, it provides near 15,000 medical consultations every day and manages shelters that have not yet been destroyed by Israel. There it provides drinking water and also takes care of the garbage collection, As Lazzarini recalled.
The Swiss-theyan diplomat warned that without additional financing, “unprecedented decisions” that will affect the services provided by the agency to the Palestinian refugees throughout the region, as well as the loss of the loss of the loss of the loss of the loss of “Stabilizer effect” That this organism has in the area, increasingly convulsive, “will also have its consequences.”
“My message to donors in general is that We need collective mobilization To ensure that the instrument that the international community has launched to serve the Palestinian refugees remains afloat, at least until we according to the address to follow “and until” the agency can transfer, as part of a political process, the services of a government to public institutions trained and prepared in the service of the Palestinians. “
Lazzarini was convinced that the absence of an orderly transition or a sudden loss or reduction of UNRWA services “will only aggravate suffering and despair Throughout the occupied Palestinian territory “that could even trigger disturbances in neighboring countries, something that the region” cannot afford, especially now, “he added.
“Abominable” mechanism
At the same time he called a High fire in Gaza, to the immediate and unconditional liberation of all Israeli hostages and facilitate the delivery of supplies under the direction of the United Nations, including UNRWA and said that “there is no other alternative to deal with the challenge of hunger that extends in the Gaza Strip.”
The head of the UNRWA spoke of a Confined and captive population, bombarded, constantly besieged and displaced When referring to the situation in Gaza, where “any place is safe.” Lazzarini stressed that the so -called “help mechanism”, managed by Israel and the United States since the beginning of May, is “a abomination that humiliates and degrades to desperate people “and described it as “Mortal Tramp which costs more lives than saves “, by the numerous mortal episodes that have registered near these distribution points.
