The Commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is calling for increased global pressure to push Israel; into opening more avenues for humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.
Philippe Lazzarini posed on X on Friday, calling on Israel to “cooperate with the United Nations to facilitate the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
“Member states should exert more pressure [on Israel] to implement the ICJ order,” Lazzarini wrote in the post. “Those who stopped funding UNRWA should reconsider their decision to allow the Agency to fulfill its mandate, including help averting famine.”
The tweet came one day after, and referenced, an order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which unanimously ordered Israel to take immediate and effective action to get aid into Gaza.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, at least 31 people, including 27 children have died of malnutrition or dehydration. The ICJ court noted that in Gaza, “famine is setting in.”
The ICJ report called on Israel to open land bridges into Gaza to let humanitarian aid pour through. It noted that only land deliveries will be enough to prevent hunger in Gaza.
In January, Israel accused 12 UNRWA employees of being involved in the October 7 Hamas attack. According to EU humanitarian aid and crisis management head Janez Lenarcic, Israel never provided evidence to back the claim. The UNRWA also fired the ten surviving employees (the other two have been killed) but 18 countries, including the agency’s top donors the United States and Germany, paused funding.
“Bold action cannot wait any longer,” he concluded.
The survival of the UNRWA is in doubt, despite some of its funders resuming payments. In late February, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu released a post-war plan for Gaza that included the elimination of the UNRWA.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion spending bill that forbade funding to the UNRWA until at least March 2025. A day earlier, Israel announced that it would no longer allow any UNRWA trucks to enter North Gaza, where food insecurity is at its worst.