UNRWA chief seeks probe into killing of hundreds of staff in Gaza

The outgoing head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) supporting Palestinian refugees said on Tuesday he wanted an investigation into the killing of nearly 400 UNRWA staff during the conflict in Gaza.

“I believe that we need to have a panel … a high-level panel of experts to look into the killing of our staff,” Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva.

Speaking at a press conference on the last day on the job as UNRWA commissioner general, the 62-year-old Swiss national condemned the fact that “more than 390” of the agency’s staff had been killed since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.

“Many others have sustained life-changing injuries or have been arbitrarily detained and tortured,” he said.

He said an investigation was needed not just into the killing of UNRWA employees but also of other UN staff, stressing: “There have been other UN colleagues who have been also killed.

“And we have to look also at the extraordinary, large-scale destruction of the agency, of UN premises in Gaza,” said Lazzarini.

He has warned that Israeli attacks on the agency, coupled with swingeing funding cuts, have left UNRWA facing “collapse”.

He said he had raised the issue of an investigation with the office of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and with UN member states in New York.

The question, he said, was “when is the right time to start this, as … everything in this context is polarised”.

“The more time goes, the more difficult the task for the commission will be in the future.”