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Statement of Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA at the International Conference in Support of Lebanon's People and Sovereignty

UNRWA

24 Oct 2024

Paris

Monsieur le Président,

Monsieur le Premier Ministre,

Excellences,

The escalating conflict in Lebanon is a tragic expansion of the devastating war in Gaza and the crisis in the West Bank.

It is the spillover of conflict that we have feared for more than a year.

Civilians once again are paying a heavy price.

Air strikes are killing and injuring thousands of people, many of them women and children.

Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced, searching for safety in a climate of fear and uncertainty.

UNRWA - the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees - is offering shelter and humanitarian assistance to those in need throughout the country.

Our shelters are currently hosting nearly 4,000 Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian displaced people.

This inclusive approach is critical for keeping intercommunal tensions at bay.

We are providing daily meals and psychological support.

We are also working with partners on the early detection of infectious disease outbreaks.

To continue running our shelters and responding to growing humanitarian needs we need additional funding.

Funding, however, is not all that is needed to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to civilians.

We also require an enabling environment to operate.

This includes respect for international humanitarian law.

In Gaza only, at least 232 UNRWA staff have been killed.

Over 200 UNRWA premises have been damaged or destroyed.

Draft legislation in the Israeli Knesset seeks to collapse our operations in the occupied Palestinian territory.

This would have a devastating impact on the provision of humanitarian aid and essential services like education and primary healthcare to millions of Palestine Refugees, including those in Lebanon.

The failure to push back effectively against attempts to intimidate and undermine the United Nations has set a dangerous precedent.

I must stress that these attacks are not confined to UNRWA.

They are attacks on our common multilateral system.

The attacks on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon demonstrate a disturbing trend that must be reversed.

I urge all governments to give the utmost priority to ensuring respect for the international rules-based order and the United Nations.

Today is United Nations Day.

A renewed commitment to multilateralism and our shared values, enshrined in the UN Charter, must guide our response in Lebanon and across the region.

Thank you.

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.