GAUZE – The head of the UN Agency for Aid to Palestine Refugees (UNRVA), Filipe Lazarini, said that more children were killed in the Gaza Strip in the past six months than in all world conflicts in the last four years.
“More than 30,000 people were killed in six months.” We know that there are 13,000 children among them. We know that more children have been killed in Gaza in six months than in all conflicts around the world in the last four years. Therefore, it is unprecedented in scope, as well as in the degree of destruction,” said Lazarini in an interview for Tas, reports Tanjug.
He added that a total of 180 UNRVA workers have been killed in the enclave since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas and that he does not rule out the possibility of seeking justice at the International Criminal Court for the death of the staff.
Lazarini claims that certain countries seek to disband UNRVA for political reasons in order to prevent the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
“I have clearly drawn the attention of the UN member states to the fact that we must not withdraw because the real intention is to disband the Agency of a political nature, which in the future could undermine efforts leading to a political solution to the Palestinian state,” he said.
Lazarini added that he was not aware of Israel’s formal proposal to the UN to disband UNRVA and transfer its staff to another agency, as reported by the media, but stressed that it was not possible to transfer UNRVA’s responsibilities, given the number of staff in Gaza compared to other UN agencies.
“UNRVA is much more than food distribution, it represents health care and education, which are services that no other organization can take on. And the only one who will be able to take over will be the future state of Palestine when we have a political solution,” emphasized Lazarini.
He added that UNRVA will be disbanded only when a solution for an independent Palestinian state is found.
In late January, several countries, including the US, decided to suspend funding to UNRVA after Israeli authorities alleged that some of the agency’s employees were linked to the Palestinian militant movement Hamas.
Lazarini said that one of the 12 employees was reinstated after Israel’s accusations, and that most countries continued to fund the Agency, but that the US was not among them.
