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The Israeli Authorities have stopped giving visas to heads and staff of the international NGO community

UNRWA

21 Sep 2024

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

The Israeli Authorities have stopped giving visas to heads and staff of the international NGO community.

For years, these organisations have been providing humanitarian assistance to people in need in close partnership with the U.N.

Increasingly, the Government of Israel is phasing out representation from humanitarian organisations or those engaged in reporting on the atrocities of this war and the impact on civilians.

As humanitarian needs continue to increase we need more humanitarian workers not less. The opposite is now happening.

This comes on top of the ongoing entry ban of international media to report freely from inside Gaza, at a time when a number of senior UN officials are not given permission to visit Gaza and/or are prevented to travel to the West Bank including East Jerusalem.

Humanitarian organisations and international media are prevented from doing their work properly. This has to end and restrictions must be lifted.

Let us do our work including at UNRWA.

— Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner General

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.