UNRWA’s Lazzarini revealed that the agency is $80 million short in its budget from now till the end of the year.
The Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, revealed on Monday that the UN agency faces “grim” funding opportunities for the coming year.
At a press briefing in Geneva Lazzarini announced that UNRWA is short on $80 million in its budget from now till the end of the year, Anadolu news agency said.
“The forecast for 2025 is very uncertain, looks a little bit grim, because a number of donors have indicated that they will enter an austerity budget as from 2025,” UNRWA’s commissioner general indicated.
Lazzarini urged the UN member states to resist the attacks on the agency’s reputation.
The UN official labeled the nearly one-year-old Israeli war on the Gaza Strip as an endless nightmare.
“Gaza has become uninhabitable, its people face disease, death or hunger on a daily basis,” the Palestinian official news agency WAFA quoted him as saying.
“The people of Gaza are trapped in 10% of the land” constantly moving around in the Strip “in search of safety that they never found,” he added.
Lazzarini announced that 620,000 children live among the rubble of destroyed homes in Gaza, according to WAFA.
The commissioner general revealed that during his meetings in New York and Geneva, he asked the UN member states to make education “a collective priority that goes beyond life-saving activities.”
🔹1,640 people have been reportedly killed in #Lebanon since October 2023, with 1,030 in September 2024 alone.
🔹Over 346,000 have been internally displaced, a 64% increase since September 26.
🔹@UNRWA is providing critical aid to 2,332 displaced people in our shelters,… pic.twitter.com/5wfFpRJKtQ
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 1, 2024
Lazzarini told reporters that despite the immense challenges, the agency already started a month ago “to return some children to a learning environment.”
“We must never forget that the only asset that has never been taken away from the Palestinians is education. They have been deprived of several things over the past decades, but they have never been deprived of education, and education was essentially their source of pride,” he stressed.
As for the situation in the West Bank, Lazzarini said it is “a silent tragedy,” WAFA said.
As for the developments in Lebanon, the commissioner general revealed that UNRWA is already hosting 3,500 Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrians in its shelters in nine locations.
On the topic of UNRWA’s employee Fateh Sharif – killed along with his wife and two children in a targeted Israeli airstrike on his home in El-Buss camp in the south of Lebanon – who was mourned by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas as one of its leaders in Lebanon, Lazzarini stressed that Sharif was investigated and suspended earlier this year when the allegations of being part of Hamas surfaced in March.
Lazzarini told reporters that his “first decision” regarding Sharif was to suspend the employee and then launch an investigation into the matter.
Israel Assassinates Leader of Hamas in Lebanon, Top PFLP Commanders
Israeli Allegations Debunked
Earlier this year, 16 UN Member States suspended funding for the agency, following Israeli allegations that UNRWA personnel were involved in the October 7 resistance operation.
A UN investigation has already closed five cases of allegations amid a notable lack of evidence given by Israel in support of its claims.
Lazzarini called on Member States to reach an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, “release all hostages” and increase the flow of humanitarian assistance. He also urged the safeguarding and support of UNRWA in order to “scale up service delivery” to Palestine refugees as well as to commit to multi-year financial commitments.
‘Blatant Disregard’ – UNRWA Attacked for Safeguarding Palestinian Refugees’ Rights
‘Targeted for Our Role’
In July this year, Lazzarini said that “UNRWA is targeted because of its role in safeguarding the rights of Palestine Refugees, and because it embodies an international commitment to a political solution,” adding that “Failing to push back will leave other UN entities and international organizations exposed to similar attacks.”
Lazzarini emphasized that UNRWA “is the backbone” of the humanitarian response in Gaza.
Before the war, the agency met “70-80% of primary healthcare needs in Gaza.”
He highlighted that when the pledging conference was held last June “no one could have foreseen the tragedy that would engulf Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.”
(PC, Anadolu)
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