Israeli authorities official calling Phillipe Lazzarini a ‘terrorist sympathiser’ additionally places his security in danger, UN says.
The United Nations has denounced an Israeli authorities spokesperson for calling the top of its company for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) a “terrorist sympathiser”.
Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for UN Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres, stated the feedback by Israel’s David Mencer have been “downright harmful”.
Mencer took intention at UNRWA head Phillipe Lazzarini in a videotaped speech on Wednesday, saying his company had been deeply infiltrated by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
“Now if the UN was doing what it was designed to do, then Philippe Lazzarini needs to be one of many good guys, however he’s not,” Mencer stated.
“He [Lazzarini] is among the dangerous guys. A terrorist sympathiser. A Jew-killing enabler. A liar.”
The UN’s Dujarric known as the rhetoric “reprehensible”, warning that it jeopardises Lazzarini’s security.
“Utilizing the form of inflammatory language he used to explain Mr Lazzarini … in an atmosphere that’s already extraordinarily unstable – is reprehensible and downright harmful,” Dujarric instructed Al Jazeera.
“It places in danger a senior UN official whose solely focus is on serving to civilians in Gaza. To alleviate their struggling,” he stated.
UNRWA below hearth
Israel has for years campaigned towards the UNRWA, the primary organisation delivering humanitarian help to Palestinians within the Gaza Strip and caring for Palestinian refugees in different international locations, claiming it has connections with “terrorists” and lobbying for its closure.
Earlier this yr, Israel accused the company of using employees who participated within the Hamas-led October 7 assaults on Israel, pushing greater than a dozen worldwide donors to droop assist.
A UN-authorised impartial overview discovered that Israel had not supplied credible proof for its accusations and most donors have since reinstated funding.
There’s a separate investigation into the October assault itself, by the UN’s Workplace of Inner Oversight Providers.
Israeli assaults in Gaza have steadily focused UNRWA amenities, killing 197 of its employees members and hanging 70 p.c of its colleges, in accordance with the organisation.
“All guidelines of battle have been damaged in Gaza”, with not less than eight colleges housing displaced Palestinians attacked by Israel within the final 10 days, Lazzarini stated.
At the very least 25 individuals died in a strike on the newest faculty to be hit, al-Razi faculty within the central Nuseirat refugee camp, in accordance with Palestinian officers.
UN chief Guterres has warned that “there isn’t a various to UNRWA” in Gaza, calling it a “vital lifeline” for Palestinian refugees.
Gaza’s Ministry of Well being stated not less than 38,794 individuals have been killed and 89,364 wounded in Israel’s battle on the enclave. The demise toll in Israel from the Hamas-led assaults in October is estimated at 1,139, with dozens of individuals nonetheless held captive in Gaza.
