Thirty days to save UNRWA: Following UN agency chief Lazzarini in his race against time

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Issued on: 05/04/2024 – 14:17Modified: 05/04/2024 – 14:28

24:28

REPORTERS © FRANCE 24

UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, is on the brink of collapse. Since the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, the agency has come under suspicion, accused of being too close to the terrorist acts of Hamas. Many donor countries have suspended their financial contributions as a result. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, is fighting body and soul for its survival. For one month, our reporters followed him across the United States, the Middle East and Europe in his race against time to find the funding for the activities and salaries of his thousands of employees. This is their special 24-minute report.

At the end of January, the accusation sent shockwaves: Israel claimed that 12 employees of UNRWA – a UN agency founded in 1949 – had participated, in one way or another, in the Hamas-led massacres of October 7, 2023, in which around 1,140 people were killed in Israel. The Israeli authorities have since failed to substantiate these claims. Several investigations are under way. But for the UN agency, a race against time had begun.

Following the accusations by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, 12 employees of the UN agency were dismissed. Six countries – including the United States – suspended their funding of UNRWA, jeopardising the financial survival of the agency that manages health, social and educational services for 5.9 million Palestinian refugees in five countries in the region. The shortfall? More than $450 million, to be found in just 30 days, with the aim of financing the activities of UNRWA’s 33,000 employees and paying their salaries for April.

Watch moreUNRWA’s Lazzarini ‘deeply concerned’ that Israeli offensive could move to southern Gaza

As war rages in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA is also having to deal with the consequences of Israel’s bombing campaign which, according to the Hamas-run government, has already killed more than 33,000 people in the Palestinian enclave – including 177 members of the agency itself.

From Jerusalem to New York, via Cairo, Amman, Ramallah, Gaza and Geneva, our reporters followed UNRWA chief Lazzarini into the eye of the storm, during weeks of diplomatic wrangling and as his teams wavered between despair and hope.