UNRWA Head: Charges Our Employees Participated in 10/7 Are Allegations, ‘Problem’ That Israel Keeps Going Public

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “Amanpour,” United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini stated that Israel is trying to destroy the organization to “undermine” a Palestinian state and commented on charges that UNRWA staff members participated in the October 7 attack by stating, “The allegation seems to remain [an] allegation,” and complaining that “most of the allegations that we hear, and there are so many about UNRWA, are just allegation[s] which are shared, either through social media or through journalists, but none of them are shared with the United Nation[s], and none of them, to the best of my knowledge, are also shared with the member states.”

Lazzarini said, “There is, today, a campaign from some part[s] of Israel to try to dismantle UNRWA, not because of this allegation, not because of its proximity with the de facto, the Hamas authority in Gaza, but the real reason behind it is to try once [and] for all to address the refugee statute. There is a belief that if UNRWA leaves Gaza, leaves the occupied Palestinian territory, that the refugee statute is addressed once [and] for all and…it will also undermine the future aspiration[s] of the Palestinian[s] for self-determination.”

Later, he stated, “The allegation seems to remain [an] allegation, even when we talk about the 12 staff who allegedly have participated [in] the massacre of October 7. There [has] been a document which has been shared with the media, I believe, also with the U.S., and when we have asked what is in this document, in fact, it was nothing else than the extended allegation or information which [has] been leaked to the public. The problem today is that most of the allegations that we hear, and there are so many about UNRWA, are just allegation[s] which are shared, either through social media or through journalists, but none of them are shared with the United Nation[s], and none of them, to the best of my knowledge, are also shared with the member states.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett