The war in Gaza has resulted in a blatant disregard for the UN mission, including outrageous attacks on UN Relief and Works Agency personnel, facilities and operations.
These attacks must stop, and the world must act to hold perpetrators accountable.
As I write this, our agencies have confirmed that at least 192 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza. More than 170 UNRWA facilities have been damaged or destroyed. UNRWA-run schools have been destroyed and approximately 450 displaced people have been killed while taking refuge in UNRWA schools and other buildings. Since October 7, Israeli security forces have been rounding up UNRWA staff in Gaza who claim they were tortured or ill-treated in the Gaza Strip and in Israeli custody.
UNRWA staff are regularly subjected to harassment and humiliation at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the agency’s facilities are used for military purposes by Israeli security forces, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.
UNRWA is not the only UN agency facing danger: in April, World Food Programme and UNICEF vehicles were fired upon, apparently unintentionally, despite coordination with Israeli authorities.
Attacks on UNRWA have spread to East Jerusalem, where Jerusalem city officials have helped instigate protests against UNRWA. Demonstrations have become increasingly dangerous, with at least two arson attacks on UNRWA facilities and crowds, including Israeli children, gathering outside the compound chanting “Burn the UN.” Demonstrators also hurled stones.
Not only are Israeli authorities threatening the operation of our staff and missions, they are also delegitimizing UNRWA by labelling it a terrorist organisation that promotes extremism and UN leadership as terrorists in collusion with Hamas, setting a dangerous precedent for the routine targeting of UN staff and facilities.
How is this possible? Where is the international outrage? The absence of outrage is a license to ignore the United Nations and opens the door to impunity and chaos. If we tolerate such attacks in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, we cannot uphold humanitarian principles in other conflicts around the world. This attack on the United Nations will further weaken our instruments of peace and defense against inhumanity around the world. This must not become the new normal.
Israel has long been an enemy of UNRWA, but following the horrific attacks on October 7, it launched a campaign to equate UNRWA with Hamas and portray the agency as promoting extremism. In a new twist to this campaign, the Israeli government has raised serious allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the Hamas attacks.
There can be no question that individuals accused of criminal acts, including deplorable attacks against Israel, must be investigated, which is exactly what the United Nations is doing. These individuals must be held accountable through criminal prosecution and, if guilty, punished.
The investigation is being overseen by the Office of Internal Oversight, the UN system’s highest investigative body. It is investigating allegations against 19 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza. To date, one case has been closed for lack of evidence; four cases have been suspended due to lack of information to continue the investigation; a further 14 cases are under investigation.
But we must distinguish between the actions of individuals and UNRWA’s mission to serve Palestine refugees. To attack that mission on the basis of these allegations is unjust and disingenuous.
Beyond these incidents, further allegations of collusion with Hamas have emerged, which I believe have made UN humanitarian personnel and assets a legitimate target in the eyes of some. This is dangerous for UN personnel around the world. The world must take decisive action against unjustified attacks on the UN, not just for Gaza and the Palestinian people, but for all countries. The adoption of Resolution 2730 by the UN Security Council last week on the protection of humanitarian personnel is a welcome development.
The international community has the tools to address international crimes, including the International Criminal Court. However, given the scale and scope of attacks against UN personnel and facilities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory over the past seven months, there is an urgent need for a dedicated, independent investigative body to be established, through a UN Security Council or General Assembly resolution, to establish the facts and identify those responsible for attacks on UN institutions. Such an investigative body would ensure accountability and, more importantly, help reaffirm the inviolability of international law.
Before the UN Charter is symbolically discarded, we must seriously defend the UN institutions and the values ​​they represent. This can only be achieved through principled action by countries around the world and a commitment to peace and justice for all.
