Future looks dire for UN Palestinian refugee agency, says UNRWA chief

A Palestinian boy sits beside an aid box provided by UNRWA outside a distribution point in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 4, 2025. (Reuters)
A Palestinian boy sits beside an aid box provided by UNRWA outside a distribution point in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 4, 2025. (Reuters)
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Updated 06 February 2025
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Future looks dire for UN Palestinian refugee agency, says UNRWA chief

Palestinian boy sits beside an aid box provided by UNRWA outside a distribution point in Khan Younis. (Reuters)
  • Even in East Jerusalem, Lazzarini said, health care and other services provided by UNRWA “are continuing, though not necessarily at the same scope it used to be”

BEIRUT: The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Thursday that while an Israeli ban has not yet forced the agency to cease operations, it faces an “existential threat” in the long run.
“I have been very clear that despite all the obstacles and the pressure the agency is under, our objective is to stay and deliver until we are prevented to do so,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency, also known as UNRWA, said in an interview with The Associated Press during a visit to Beirut.
Israel last week formally banned UNRWA from operating on its territory. As a result, Lazzarini said, international staff have had to leave East Jerusalem because their visas expired, but in Gaza and the West Bank there has been no immediate impact on operations.
Even in East Jerusalem, he said, health care and other services provided by UNRWA “are continuing, though not necessarily at the same scope it used to be.”
UNRWA is also likely to face increased pressure from the United States under the new Trump administration.
US President Donald Trump in recent days proposed permanently resettling the approximately 2 million Palestinians in Gaza in neighboring Arab countries and suggested the United States taking long-term control of Gaza.
Lazzarini called the proposal “totally unrealistic,” adding, “We are talking about forced displacement. Forced displacement is a crime, an international crime. It’s ethnic cleansing.”
Trump announced Tuesday that Washington will not resume funding for UNRWA — which had already been halted since January 2024 when the Biden administration stopped it following accusations by Israel that UNRWA staffers in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
Israel had alleged that 19 out of UNRWA’s approximately 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the attack. UNRWA said it fired nine staffers after an internal UN investigation found evidence that they could have been involved.
While several other donor countries also suspended funding at the time, all but the US decided to resume funding.
Lazzarini called the loss of US support “a challenge,” but said the agency is appealing to Gulf Arab countries and other donors to increase their contributions. He described his agency as the target of a “massive disinformation campaign” with a politically motivated objective of dismantling it.
UNRWA’s opponents believe the agency has prolonged the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by giving refugee status to the descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel in 1948, thus maintaining for them, in theory, the right of return.
Lazzarini said those who think that UNRWA can simply be dissolved and its responsibilities handed over to other institutions are mistaken.
UNRWA provides aid and services — including health and education — to some 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, it has been the main lifeline for a population reliant on humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Lazzarini said that while replaceable by a functioning public institution, UNRWA provides essential public services that no other UN agency offers on such a scale. It has served as a “substitute in the absence of the state for the Palestinian refugees,” he said. He argued that the only way to end the agency’s mandate is as part of a political process resulting in a Palestinian state alongside Israel, so that “at the end of this process, the agency can hand over its services to an empowered Palestinian institution.”
The alternative, he said, is to “let the agency implode and abruptly end its activities, which would mean additional suffering for one of the most destitute populations in the region.”


US and Israel look to Africa for resettling Palestinians uprooted from Gaza

US and Israel look to Africa for resettling Palestinians uprooted from Gaza
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US and Israel look to Africa for resettling Palestinians uprooted from Gaza

US and Israel look to Africa for resettling Palestinians uprooted from Gaza
  • The US and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss using their territories as potential destinations to resettle Palestinians from the Gaza Strip
  • The contacts were with Sudan, Somalia and the breakaway region of Somalia known as Somaliland

JERUSALEM: The US and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss using their territories as potential destinations for resettling Palestinians uprooted from the Gaza Strip under President Donald Trump’s proposed postwar plan, American and Israeli officials say.
The contacts with Sudan, Somalia and the breakaway region of Somalia known as Somaliland reflect the determination by the US and Israel to press ahead with a plan that has been widely condemned and raised serious legal and moral issues. Because all three places are poor, and in some cases wracked by violence, the proposal also casts doubt on Trump’s stated goal of resettling Gaza’s Palestinians in a “beautiful area.”
Officials from Sudan said they have rejected overtures from the US, while officials from Somalia and Somaliland told The Associated Press that they were not aware of any contacts.
Under Trump’s plan, Gaza’s more than 2 million people would be permanently sent elsewhere. He has proposed the US would take ownership of the territory, oversee a lengthy cleanup process and develop it as a real estate project.
The idea of a mass transfer of Palestinians was once considered a fantasy of Israel’s ultranationalist fringe. But since Trump presented the idea at a White House meeting last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hailed it as a ” bold vision.”
Palestinians in Gaza have rejected the proposal and dismiss Israeli claims that the departures would be voluntary. Arab nations have expressed vehement opposition and offered an alternative reconstruction plan that would leave the Palestinians in place. Rights groups have said forcing or pressuring the Palestinians to leave could be a potential war crime.
Still, the White House says Trump “stands by his vision.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a secret diplomatic initiative, US and Israeli officials confirmed the contacts with Somalia and Somaliland, while the Americans confirmed Sudan as well. They said it was unclear how much progress the efforts made or at what level the discussions took place.
Separate outreach from the US and Israel to the three potential destinations began last month, days after Trump floated the Gaza plan alongside Netanyahu, according to the US officials, who said that Israel was taking the lead in the discussions.
Israel and the US have a variety of incentives — financial, diplomatic and security — to offer these potential partners. It is a formula that Trump used five years ago when he brokered the Abraham Accords — a series of mutually beneficial diplomatic accords between Israel and four Arab countries.
The White House declined to comment on the outreach efforts.
The offices of Netanyahu and Ron Dermer, the Israeli Cabinet minister and Netanyahu confidant who has been leading Israel’s postwar planning, also had no comment.
But Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a longtime advocate of what he calls “voluntary” emigration of Palestinians, said this week that Israel is working to identify countries to take in Palestinians. He also said Israel is preparing a “very large emigration department” within its Defense Ministry.
Here is a closer look at the places the officials say have been approached.
Sudan
The North African country was among the four Abraham Accord nations that agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020.
As part of the deal, the US removed Sudan from its list of state supporters of terrorism, a move that gave the country access to international loans and global legitimacy. But relations with Israel never took off as Sudan plunged into civil war between government forces and the RSF paramilitary group.
The conflict has been marked by atrocities, including ethnically motivated killing and rape, according to the UN and rights groups. The International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, and then-President Joe Biden’s administration in January said the RSF and its proxies were committing genocide.
The US and Israel would be hard-pressed to persuade Palestinians to leave Gaza, particularly to such a troubled country. But they could offer incentives to the Khartoum government, including debt relief, weapons, technology and diplomatic support.
Two Sudanese officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic matter, confirmed that the Trump administration has approached the military-led government about accepting Palestinians.
One of them said the contacts began even before Trump’s inauguration with offers of military assistance against the RSF, assistance with postwar reconstruction and other incentives.
Both officials said the Sudanese government rejected the idea. “This suggestion was immediately rebuffed,” said one official. ”No one opened this matter again.”
Military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan told an Arab leaders’ summit last week in Cairo that his country “categorically rejects” any plan that aims to transfer “the brotherly Palestinians from their land under whatever justification or name.”
Somaliland
Somaliland, a territory of over 3 million people in the Horn of Africa, seceded from Somalia over 30 years ago, but it is not internationally recognized as an independent state. Somalia considers Somaliland part of its territory.
Somaliland’s new president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, has made international recognition a priority.
An American official involved in the efforts confirmed that the US was “having a quiet conversation with Somaliland about a range of areas where they can be helpful to the US in exchange for recognition.”
The possibility of US recognition could provide an incentive for Abdullahi to back away from the territory’s solidarity with the Palestinians.
The United Arab Emirates, another Abraham Accord country that has developed strong ties with Israel, once had a military base in Somaliland and maintains commercial interests there, including a port. The territory’s strategic location, in the Gulf of Aden waterway near Yemen, home to the Houthi rebel group, could also make it a valuable ally.
Over the years, Somaliland has been lauded for its relatively stable political environment, contrasting sharply with Somalia’s ongoing struggles amid deadly attacks by Al-Qaeda-linked militant group Al-Shabab. Since 1991, Somaliland has maintained its own government, currency and security structures. Still, it has one of the lowest income levels in the world.
An official in Somaliland, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said his government has not been approached and is not in talks about taking in Palestinians.
Somalia
Somalia has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinians, often hosting peaceful protests on its streets in support of them. The country joined the recent Arab summit that rejected Trump’s plan and seems like an unlikely destination for Palestinians, even if they did agree to move.
Sambu Chepkorir, a lawyer and conflict researcher in Nairobi, Kenya, said it is difficult to understand why Somalia would want to host Palestinians given the country’s strong support for Palestinian self-rule.
“The realignments keep changing, and so maybe there is a hidden agenda in why Somalia,” Chepkorir said.
A Somali official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the country had not been approached about taking in Palestinians from Gaza and there had been no discussions about it.


Turkish top officials make sudden trip to Damascus after Syria’s deal with Kurdish-led group

Turkish top officials make sudden trip to Damascus after Syria’s deal with Kurdish-led group
Updated 14 March 2025
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Turkish top officials make sudden trip to Damascus after Syria’s deal with Kurdish-led group

Turkish top officials make sudden trip to Damascus after Syria’s deal with Kurdish-led group
  • Ankara intends to examine “how the agreement reached will be implemented and its reflections on the field,” local news agency DHA reported
  • Turkiye considers the SDF and its military arm as terrorist organizations because of their links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party

ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s top diplomat, defense minister and intelligence chief paid a sudden visit to Damascus on Thursday, days after Syria’s interim government reached a deal to integrate a US-backed Kurdish-led armed group into the country’s army.
The agreement to integrate the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, into the Syrian government followed fierce clashes that erupted last week between government security forces and gunmen loyal to ousted leader Bashar Assad.

Residents celebrate following the signing of a breakthrough deal between Syria's interim government and the SDF, the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country's northeast, in Qamishli, northeastern Syria, on  March 10, 2025. (AP)

Monitoring groups said hundreds of civilians were killed in the violence in Syria’s coastal communities, primarily targeting members of the Alawite religious minority to which Assad belongs.
Ahmad Al-Sharaa, Syria’s interim president and a former rebel, met with Hakan Fidan, Turkiye’s foreign minister; Yasar Guler, defense minister, and Ibrahim Kalin, head of national intelligence. They were accompanied by Turkiye’s ambassador to Syria, Burhan Koroglu.
According to local news agency DHA, an official from the Turkish Defense Ministry, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity, said earlier Thursday that Ankara intends to examine “how the agreement reached will be implemented and its reflections on the field.”
The official added that Turkiye’s expectations on Syria have not changed.
“There is no change in our expectations for the termination of terrorist activities in Syria, the disarmament of terrorists and the expulsion of foreign terrorists from Syria,” the official said.
Turkiye designates the SDF and its military arm, People’s Protection Units, as terrorist organizations because of their links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
As the Turkish delegation was flying unannounced to Damascus, Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented awards for “benevolence and kindness” to a former Syrian fighter pilot imprisoned for 43 years.

Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presents the "Benevolence and Kindness" award to former Syrian Army fighter pilot Ragheed al-Tatari, right, in Ankara on March 13, 2025. (Turkish Presidency via AP)

The ceremony, hosted by a foundation linked to Turkiye’s religious authority, honored Ragheed Al-Tatari. Erdogan praised Al-Tatari for his perseverance and gave him an award for his “benevolence.”
Al-Tatari was imprisoned under the rule of Syrian presidents Hafez Assad and later Bashar Assad. He had been detained since 1981. There are conflicting accounts for his imprisonment including refusing to bomb the city of Hama and failing to report a pilot desertion attempt.
Over four decades, Al-Tatari was moved among prisons notorious for housing political inmates, including Palmyra prison and Sednaya. His imprisonment, described by human rights groups as one of the longest in Syria for a political prisoner, ended in December when opposition forces freed him.
In a speech on stage, Erdogan lauded Al-Tatari, calling him “the brave Syrian pilot who listened to his conscience.”


UNRWA collapse would doom generation of Palestinian children: agency chief

UNRWA collapse would doom generation of Palestinian children: agency chief
Updated 14 March 2025
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UNRWA collapse would doom generation of Palestinian children: agency chief

UNRWA collapse would doom generation of Palestinian children: agency chief
  • For more than seven decades, the UNRWA has provided essential aid, assistance and services like education and health care to Palestinian refugees
  • Israel has opted to sever ties with UNRWA, banning it from operating on Israeli soil, arguing that UNRWA can be replaced by other UN agencies or NGOs

GENEVA: The UNRWA chief warned Thursday that if the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees were to collapse, it would deprive a generation of children of education, “sowing the seeds for more extremism.”
Pointing to a dire funding situation, Philippe Lazzarini warned of “the real risk of the agency collapsing and imploding.”
If that were to happen, he told AFP, “we would definitely sacrifice a generation of kids, who would be deprived from proper education.”
For more than seven decades, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has provided essential aid, assistance and services like education and health care to Palestinian refugees.
Lazzarini has described the organization as “a lifeline” for nearly six million Palestinian refugees under its charge, across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
But UNRWA has long been a lightning rod for harsh Israeli criticism, which ramped up dramatically after Hamas’s deadly attack in Israel on October 7, 2023 sparked the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s allegation early last year that some UNRWA staff took part in that attack spurred a string of nations to at least temporarily halt their backing for the already cash-strapped agency.
And earlier this year, Israel opted to sever ties with UNRWA, banning it from operating on Israeli soil.
While it can still operate in Gaza and the West Bank, it has been barred from contact with Israeli officials, making it difficult to coordinate the safe delivery of aid in the Palestinian territories.
Israel has argued that UNRWA can be replaced by other UN agencies or NGOs.
Lazzarini acknowledged earlier this week that if the only objective is to “bring trucks into Gaza” to address the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, others could step in.
But he stressed that UNRWA’s role was far broader.
“We are primarily providing government-like services,” he told AFP.
“So I don’t see any NGO or UN agencies all of a sudden stepping into the provision of public-like services.”
He cautioned that the loss of UNRWA’s education services could have particularly dire consequences.
“If you deprive 100,000 girls and boys in Gaza, for example, (of an) education, and if they have no future, and if their school is just despair and living in the rubble, I would say we are just sowing the seeds for more extremism,” he warned.
“I think this is a recipe for disaster.”
 


RSF shelling kills 5 children in Darfur

RSF shelling kills 5 children in Darfur
Updated 14 March 2025
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RSF shelling kills 5 children in Darfur

RSF shelling kills 5 children in Darfur
  • Rapid Support Forces target civilians in Al-Fasher’s neighborhoods with artillery assault

PORT SUDAN: Shelling from Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed five children in the besieged North Darfur state capital of Al-Fasher, a medical source said on Thursday.

The attack on Wednesday was first reported by the Sudanese army, which has been locked in a war with the RSF since April of 2023.

“The militia targeted civilians in the city’s neighborhoods with artillery shelling, killing five children under the age of six and wounding four women,” the army said in a statement.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a medical source confirmed the toll.

Al-Fasher, under siege by the RSF since last May, is the only one of five state capitals in the vast Darfur region that is not under paramilitary control.

Fighting in the city has intensified in recent months, as the RSF tries to consolidate its hold on Darfur after army victories in central Sudan.

The army and allied militias have successfully repelled the RSF’s attacks on Al-Fasher. 

However, the paramilitary forces have repeatedly shelled nearby famine-hit displacement camps in what local activists say is retaliation.

Since Sudan’s war began, it has claimed tens of thousands of lives, uprooted more than 12 million people, and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.

In North Darfur alone, nearly 1.7 million people are displaced.

Around 2 million people face extreme food insecurity, and 320,000 are already suffering famine conditions, according to UN estimates.

Famine has hit three displacement camps around Al-Fasher — Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam — and is expected to spread to five more areas, including Al-Fasher itself, by May.

On Wednesday, the African Union said the announcement of a parallel government in Sudan risked cleaving the country.

The RSF and its allies signed a “founding charter” of a parallel government in Nairobi last month.

The AU condemned the move and “warned that such action carries a huge risk of partitioning the country.”

The signatories to the document intend to create a “government of peace and unity” in rebel-controlled areas.

They have also pledged to “build a secular, democratic, decentralized state, based on freedom, equality and justice, without cultural, ethnic, religious or regional bias.”

In early March, the RSF and its allies again signed a “Transitional Constitution” in Nairobi.

The AU called on all its member states and the international community “not to recognize any government or parallel entity aimed at partitioning and governing part of the territory of the Republic of Sudan or its institutions.”

A statement said the organization “does not recognize the so-called government or parallel entity in the Republic of Sudan.”

On Tuesday, the EU also reiterated its commitment to Sudan’s “unity and territorial integrity.”

“Plans for parallel ‘government’ by the Rapid Support Forces risk the partition of the country and jeopardize the democratic aspirations of the Sudanese people for an inclusive Sudanese-owned process that leads to the restoration of civilian rule,” it said in a statement.

It follows a warning from the UN Security Council last week that expressed concern over the signing, adding it could worsen an already dire humanitarian situation.


Iraq repatriates more families from Daesh-linked Al-Hol camp

Iraq repatriates more families from Daesh-linked Al-Hol camp
Updated 14 March 2025
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Iraq repatriates more families from Daesh-linked Al-Hol camp

Iraq repatriates more families from Daesh-linked Al-Hol camp

BAGHDAD: Iraq has repatriated more than 150 additional families from Al-Hol camp in the neighboring Syrian Arab Republic, an Iraqi security official said on Thursday, the latest such transfer from the camp where many have alleged terrorist links.

Kurdish-run camps and prisons in northeastern Syria still hold about 56,000 people from dozens of countries, many of them the family members of Daesh suspects, more than five years after the terrorists’ territorial defeat in Syria.

While many Western countries refuse to take back their nationals, Baghdad has taken the lead by accelerating repatriations and urging others to follow suit.

The latest group of 505 people is the sixth since the beginning of the year to be repatriated. 

They left the camp on Wednesday, said Jihan Hanan, Al-Hol’s director.

The Iraqi security official confirmed that about “153 families arrived yesterday” in Iraq.

Daesh captured nearly a third of Iraq before local forces, backed by a US-led coalition, defeated them in 2017.

In Syria, US-backed Kurdish forces dislodged IS from the last of its Syrian-held territory in 2019.

Al-Hol is located in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Syria.

Iraq has intensified its efforts to bring back its nationals amid concerns about the security situation in Syria following the ouster of Bashar Assad in December, Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem Al-Araji said last week.