Israeli officials are denying visas to humanitarian groups and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has warned — an attempt not only to disrupt aid in Gaza, but also to undermine Palestinians’ refugee status and their right to return to their homeland.
On Tuesday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that the Israeli government has “stopped giving visas” to leaders and staffers within the NGO community, after creating what many experts have called the worst humanitarian crisis in modern times. Those banned include agencies with “close partnerships” with the UN, he said.
“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,” Lazzarini said. “Humanitarian organisations and international media are prevented from doing their work properly. This has to end and restrictions must be lifted.”
The move by the Israeli government is the latest in their attacks on humanitarian aid operations for Palestinians as they have created a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where the entire population of 2.3 million is in crisis levels of hunger or outright famine; and where even soap has become a precious commodity as skin, respiratory and other communicable diseases are on the rise.
It is also the latest in Israel’s targeted attacks on journalists and their ability to report from the ground in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, exposing Israel’s atrocities amid global calls to cut Israeli leaders from international assistance.
Israel is accelerating its blockade on humanitarian aid in Gaza, seeking to massacre yet more Palestinians and expand its colonization of Palestine.
The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Tuesday that Israel has “all but shut off” humanitarian access to northern Gaza, only fully facilitating two UN aid missions into the area in the first two weeks of September. Meanwhile, a group of 15 aid groups reported that the aid shipments entering Gaza hit a record low in August, with 83 percent of food aid being blocked from entry by Israeli forces.
At the same time, Lazzarini has warned, Israel is seeking to altogether dismantle UNRWA — the agency that not only coordinates humanitarian aid in Gaza, but also runs schools and shelters for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, among other services.
By attacking UNRWA, Israel is not just attacking a lifeline for countless Palestinians. It is also attacking Palestinians’ refugee status, and as such, their right to return to their homelands, as the UNRWA leader said in an interview with BBC last week.
“There is a deliberate attempt to eliminate and to dismantle [UNRWA] and the real reason behind this has nothing to do with neutrality issues. There are political considerations behind it,” Lazzarini said. “Ultimately, there is a desire to strip the Palestinian from the refugee status and, beyond that, also to undermine the future aspiration of the Palestinian for self-determination. And that’s the reason why UNRWA has become such a target.”
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