\u201cMany others have sustained life-changing injuries or have been arbitrarily detained and tortured,\u201d he said, calling for investigations into the alleged killings of other UN staff as well.<\/p>\n
\t Lazzarini said he had raised the issue of an investigation with the office of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and with UN member states.<\/p>\n He lamented that Israel\u2019s conduct of the war gave the impression that \u201call possible red lines have been crossed, and there have never ever been any consequences, whether diplomatic, political, economic, legal, nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n Israeli intelligence reportedly<\/a> alleged during the war that some 10 percent of UNRWA\u2019s 12,000 Gazan employees had ties to Palestinian terror groups and that at least 12 were involved in the October 7 onslaught. It also found several<\/a>\u00a0Hamas facilities\u00a0located directly<\/a>\u00a0underneath\u00a0multiple<\/a>\u00a0UNRWA facilities throughout the war.<\/p>\n At least one Israeli hostage abducted in the massacre has said she was held in an UNRWA facility<\/a>, and the IDF has repeatedly targeted\u00a0Hamas command centers and gunmen hiding out in UNRWA schools.<\/p>\n A series of UN-linked internal and external investigations found some \u201cneutrality-related issues\u201d at UNRWA, but claimed Israel had not provided conclusive evidence for its headline allegation.<\/p>\n Lazzarini claimed on Tuesday that killings of UNRWA staff and other aid workers, health workers and journalists were routinely justified by Israel, with the victims \u201clabeled as being Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n He made a similar allegation regarding the fighting with Lebanon, which resumed on March 2 when the terror group Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel\u2019s north after a long hiatus.<\/p>\n Lazzarini asserted that some of those killed in the attacks, whom Israel \u201clabeled as being Hezbollah,\u201d may not have been terrorists. The UNRWA chief claimed that this represented a \u201cspreading\u201d of the purported sense of impunity beyond Gaza.<\/p>\n Referring to the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran, Lazzarini argued that the world\u2019s \u201cabject failure\u201d to respond set \u201cthe stage for a war outside the bounds of international law that is now spreading across and beyond the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Relations between Israel and Lazzarini\u2019s agency, which provides aid, health and education to nearly six million Palestinians across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, have long been strained, but they have fallen off a cliff since the start of the war.<\/p>\n The 5.9 million recipients of this assistance are registered by UNRWA as Palestinian refugees, a title given to any descendant of Arabs displaced in the war surrounding Israel\u2019s creation in 1948. Israel has long argued that UNRWA\u2019s definition, which is used for no other refugee population in the world, perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by refusing to resettle them elsewhere, as is commonly done with other refugee populations.<\/p>\n Israel passed<\/a> a law banning the UN agency from operating on its soil in October 2024, accusing the agency of providing cover for Hamas terrorists, and claiming that some of the agency\u2019s employees took part in the October 7 attack.<\/p>\n \t Israeli authorities earlier this year also began demolishing UNRWA\u2019s headquarters in east Jerusalem, in a move Lazzarini called \u201cextraordinarily outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s moves against the agency, coupled with severe funding cuts, have left UNRWA facing \u201ccollapse,\u201d Lazzarini said. The United States was long UNRWA\u2019s biggest donor, but froze funding in January 2024 after Israel accused agency staff of taking part in the October 7 attack.<\/p>\n \t If the international community fails to protect UNRWA, Lazzarini warned, \u201cthe consequences will be catastrophic for a generation or more.\u201d<\/p>\n Lazzarini will be temporarily replaced at the agency\u2019s helm by Christian Saunders, the special coordinator on improving the UN\u2019s response to sexual exploitation and abuse.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tDisplaced Palestinians shelter at an UNRWA school in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, December 24, 2025 (Abed Rahim Khatib\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/F251208CG05-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tPolice outside the UNRWA center in Jerusalem, as part of a raid on the center, December 08, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP25218325117266-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tPeople inspect the damage at the Sheikh Radwan al-Taba UNRWA clinic following an Israeli army bombardment in Gaza City, August 6, 2025. (AP\/Jehad Alshrafi)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26020444656174-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tIsraeli bulldozers demolish a UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem, January 20, 2026. (AP\/Mahmoud Illean)<\/p>\n
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David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel<\/p>\n
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