Remarks of UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini at the Global Refugee Forum

December 13, 2023

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I arrived in Geneva last night. Straight from Gaza.

My third time since the devastating war started.

I have to say, it is a living hell.

Most of Gaza’s population has been forcibly displaced, largely into the southern part of the Strip, Rafah.

Rafah is now hosting well over a million people. It used to be home to 280,000 people.

It lacks the infrastructure and resources to support such a population.

Inside our own warehouses, families live in tiny spaces that are separated by blankets hung on thin wooden structures.

Out in the open, flimsy shelters have emerged everywhere.

Rafah has become a tented community.

The spaces around UNRWA buildings are congested with shelters and desperate, hungry people.

Aid can no longer reach those who could not move to the south.

There is no more food to buy, even for those who can pay.

In the shops, the shelves are empty.

The sight of a truck carrying humanitarian assistance now provokes chaos. People are hungry.  They stop the truck and ask for food, and they eat it on the street. I witnessed this firsthand when I entered into Gaza on Monday evening.

To call such scenes inhumane is an understatement.

Civil order is breaking down.

The people of Gaza are now crammed into less than one third of the original territory, near the Egyptian border.

It is unrealistic to think that people will remain resilient in the face of unlivable conditions of such magnitude.

Especially when the border is so close.

Excellencies,

I wrote to the President of the General Assembly last week, warning that UNRWA’s ability to fulfill its mandate in Gaza is severely limited.

The entire humanitarian response heavily relies on UNRWA’s capacity.

It is now on the verge of collapse.

UNRWA is still operating 8 health centres, out of 22.

We are sheltering more than a million people in our schools and other facilities.

Our social workers are supporting traumatized people as best they can.

We are still distributing whatever food we manage to bring in, but this is often as little as a bottle of water and a can of tuna per day, per family, often numbering 6 or 7 people.

This operational reality is not sustainable. Not for the population and not for the Agency.

More than 130 UNRWA staff are confirmed killed.

Many of our staff, who are themselves displaced, take their children to work with them to ensure that they are safe together or die together.

I asked one colleague how he managed to remain composed and offer help in a shelter. He told me that he looks for a corner in the building to cry 10 times a day.

Excellencies,

There is nowhere to feel safe in Gaza.

Civilian infrastructure and UN facilities have not been spared by the shelling.

I was horrified by images yesterday of an UNRWA school being blown up in the north of Gaza.

The people of Gaza are running out of time and options, as they face bombardment, deprivation, and disease in an ever-ever-shrinking space.

They are facing the darkest chapter of their history since 1948.

And it has been a painful history.

The events in Gaza are taking place against a backdrop of 75 years of displacement.

75 years of failure to find a just and lasting solution to the plight of Palestine Refugees.

During this time, they have been deprived of their basic human rights and their right to self-determination.

Throughout the region, many continue to live in overcrowded refugee camps with substandard living conditions, generation after generation.

For the last 75 years, the world has asked UNRWA to uphold the rights of Palestine Refugees.

And we have done so successfully, contributing to their development and to their feeling of stability as much as possible.

Over 2 million students have graduated from our schools, half of them girls.

Health indicators among this refugee community exceed WHO standards.

But today, and despite our successes, UNRWA suffers from chronic underfunding which impacts the quality of our services.

Upholding refugees’ rights is not only the responsibility of humanitarian and development actors. It is a responsibility shared with donors and Host countries.

I would like here to thank the countries who have hosted, for the last 7 decades, millions of Palestine Refugees.

I also thank our partners and donors for their support and trust.

But Palestine Refugees need a just solution, not just aid.

Today, they feel abandoned by the international community.

They feel betrayed as the world fails to act in the face of one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our time in Gaza.

They now believe that human lives are not equal and human rights are not universal.

This is a dangerous message, and it will have serious repercussions.

Excellencies,

The Global Refugee Forum represents the political will of the international community to affirm the human rights of all people fleeing war and other crises.

Whether it is Syrians, Somalis, Afghans or Palestinians, addressing the plight of refugees and upholding their rights require the political will to tackle the root causes of their displacement.

Refugees often stay in that status for far too long.

This is not unique to Palestine Refugees.

All refugees remain refugees until they receive a change of status, acquire citizenship, or return to their countries of origin.

Both UNHCR and UNRWA are the expression of a collective responsibility of United Nations Member States towards refugees.

The people of Gaza, like all people, long for safety, stability, and fulfilment.

This is also the forum where I must raise the alarm about the dehumanization that is rampant during this war.

The war in Gaza heavily relies on a media war.

Dehumanizing and derogatory language should not be normalized.

The lack of empathy only fuels divides, polarization, and hatred.

I am horrified at the smear campaigns that target Palestinians and all those who provide assistance and protection to them.

Our partners present here must help us push back against hatred and debunk repeated vulgar accusations.

It is disheartening that some longstanding partners are choosing to believe the barrage of misinformation that seeks to discredit UNRWA.

I urge our partners to remain vigilant, and not to act upon distorted facts.

I have, Excellencies, three calls today.

First, we need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the siege to let in sufficient aid. I welcome here the overwhelming support of 153 UN Member States at the General Assembly calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Second, we must be able to roll out humanitarian assistance worthy of its name. It needs to be meaningful.

The day after the war in Gaza will be shaped by how we respond to the current crisis.

What can 100 trucks or so per day offer to 2.2 million people?

The high-level discussions about the number of trucks per day have taken up so much time and energy that I have no answer to a father of five in Rafah who asked me how he and his children can survive on one can of beans for three days.

We are very far from an adequate humanitarian response.

Third, collectively, we must ensure that International Humanitarian Law is still the regulating framework of the conflict. It cannot be selective or be re-interpretated.

To conclude, the Israel-Palestine conflict has been neglected for far too long. The political process needs to be revived urgently.

There is absolutely no alternative to a genuine political process to end the cycle of violence.

Israelis and Palestinians must both enjoy statehood, peace, and stability.

This will require dedicated efforts to help both societies heal and live side by side.

Thank you.