for UNRWA staff, humanitarian duty is met with brutality

UNRWA

29 Apr 2025

From Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner-General as posted on his official X account (previously known as Twitter)

“I wished for death to end the nightmare I was living through”.

Received this awful testimony from a colleague who was rounded up in Gaza tortured while in Israeli detention and finally released.

For UNRWA staff humanitarian duty is met with brutality.

Since the start of the war in October 2023, over 50 UNRWA staff among them teachers, doctors, social workers, have been detained and abused.

They have been treated in the most shocking and inhumane way. They reported being beaten up and used as human shields.

They were subjected to sleep deprivation, humiliation, threats of harm to them and their families and attacks by dogs.

Many were subjected to forced confessions.

This is nothing short of harrowing and outrageous.

Humanitarian workers are not a target. Their suffering must not be ignored.

There must be justice and accountability for the crimes and violations of international law committed in the Gaza Strip.

Justice for those serving on the humanitarian frontlines is not an option, it is an obligation.

Background Information:

UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The United Nations General Assembly established UNRWA in 1949 with a mandate to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to registered Palestine refugees in the Agency’s area of operations pending a just and lasting solution to their plight.

UNRWA operates in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, The Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Tens of thousands of Palestine refugees who lost their homes and livelihoods due to the 1948 conflict continue to be displaced and in need of support, nearly 75 years on.

UNRWA helps Palestine Refugees achieve their full potential in human development through quality services it provides in education, health care, relief and social services, protection, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance, and emergency assistance. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions.