UNRWA: Extraordinarily operational in Gaza - Press Conference | United Nations

UNRWA Commissioner-General briefed the press on UNRWA's services and ongoing operations and said that his agency is “extraordinarily operational.” Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said, “There is a perception that the agency is not operational in Gaza or in the West Bank, and we even heard today at the 4th Committee, the representative of Israel saying that UNRWA has been fully replaced and other agencies have stepped in. And I think it's important that we correct this perception.” He continued, “It is true that there is today, 2 bills adopted by the Knesset - you are all very well aware -which started to be implemented as from the end of January. The impact was on the operational presence in East Jerusalem, primary our schools, and the second impact has been that we had to withdraw our international staff, both from the West Bank and Gaza.” “But in reality,” he stressed, “we are extraordinarily operational. In Gaza, we still have 12,000 staff. They are primarily involved in providing, focusing in public health and in education. They have never ever stopped providing lifesaving assistance to the population, and since the ceasefire is in place, they have scaled up their activities across the Gaza Strip.” He added, “Just to give you few examples, I shared, also examples this morning at the 4th committee. But we have currently, about 75,000 people were sheltered in hundreds of our premises across the Gaza Strip. We have, over the last two years, provided more than 15 million primary health consultations. Today, the average is about 14,000 a day.” He said, “We have just started with UNICEF and WHO again, a vaccination campaign and I keep saying, you know that these are good examples of partnership on the ground. We have UNICEF bringing the supply to vaccine. We have WHO in charge of the cold chain, but the nurses, the staff providing to the children the vaccine, the health staff from UNRWA.” He also said, “In the West Bank we are also very active. Our schools are open. We have about 50,000 children in our schools. By the way, the number of children has increased. We registered an increase of more than 3-4,000 kids coming from the PA schools back to UNRWA schools. And when it comes to primary health, we have also provided into 2025, more than 700,000 health consultations.” He highlighted, “With 12,000 staff in Gaza, 4 to 5 into West Bank, - in West Bank, we are the second biggest employer of civil servant, and in Gaza, we are the main employer. So, we remain, despite, contrary to what it's been conveyed, the main agency.” He stated, “If you get rid of such expertise, such workforce, with an organization having very strong trust from the community, you can only weaken, in fact, any effort trying to promote stabilization.”


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