UNRWA Archives - Page 3 of 4

‘The smell of death is everywhere’ in northern Gaza, UNRWA chief says

·October 23, 2024·3 min read

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,”...

World News in Brief: Sudan’s refugee crisis, UNRWA Gaza update, violence rising in South Sudan, call to halt latest US executions

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·October 17, 2024·4 min read

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...

Gaza: School set for polio vaccine campaign hit in deadly strike, says UNRWA

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·October 14, 2024·2 min read

“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...

Israel: New law blocking UNRWA ‘would be a catastrophe’, Guterres warns

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·October 9, 2024·5 min read

“That’s why I have written directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express profound concern about draft legislation that could prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” he said at the Security Council stakeout in New York. He said such a measure would suffocate...

Sanitary disaster in Gaza ‘worsening by the day’, warns UNRWA

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·September 17, 2024·3 min read

In a new alert, UNRWA highlighted how Gazans’ shelters have become a target for insects and rodents after more than 11 months of war – echoing deep concerns among humanitarians about the lack of basic hygiene items that have left families unprotected from communicable diseases. Echoing those warnings, top independent...

Guterres condemns death of 6 UNRWA staff and 12 others in Israeli strike, calls for independent probe

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·September 12, 2024·2 min read

In a statement released via his Spokesperson, Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the latest Israeli attack on a school serving as a shelter in Nuseirat on Wednesday, which killed six staffers from the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, along with at least 12 others, including women and children. “This incident raises...

Gaza: Israeli airstrike hits UNRWA school sheltering displaced people

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·September 11, 2024·1 min read

Stéphane Dujarric said the UN is working to confirm reports that UNRWA staff were killed in the attack on the New Nuseirat school, a site that had previously been deconflicted with the Israeli authorities. “This is the fifth strike on the same location in the past 11 months,” he said....

INTERVIEW: Destruction, displacement, and grief. Senior UNRWA official reflects on ‘unprecedented’ conflict in Gaza

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·December 20, 2023·5 min read

135 UNRWA staff members are known to have been killed in Gaza since the escalation of fighting since the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel. That’s the most ever in one incident but, despite the danger and extremely difficult working conditions, UNRWA is continuing to assist those caught up in...

‘Genuine prospect of Palestinian statehood is critical’, UNRWA chief tells emergency summit in Saudi Arabia

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·November 12, 2023·2 min read

Philippe Lazzarini was addressing an emergency summit convened by the League of Arab States and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation where he called for urgent support for civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on three fronts. He called on leaders at the Arab-Islamic summit to “act now to change the trajectory”...

UNRWA fuel supply set to run out in three days

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·October 23, 2023·1 min read

“Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries. Without fuel, aid will not reach those in desperate need. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance. No fuel will further strangle the children, women and people of Gaza,” he said in a statement. UNRWA is the...

Gaza: UNRWA chief underscores duty to protect civilians at all times

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·October 22, 2023·2 min read

“Let me be clear: protecting civilians in times of conflict is not an aspiration or an ideal; it is an obligation and a commitment to our shared humanity,” UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement. Relentless air strikes and bombardments, coupled with evacuation orders from Israel, have displaced...

Gaza: UNRWA issues urgent call for civilians to be protected

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·October 14, 2023·5 min read

The statement came as the Israeli-imposed deadline for some 1.1 million civilians to leave the northern part of the enclave, ahead of what is expected to be a major advance into Gaza by Israeli ground forces, expired. “UNRWA shelters in Gaza and northern Gaza are no longer safe. This is...