UN chief calls for support for relief agency for Palestine refugees

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for political and financial support for the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees as its mandate and work are in jeopardy.



For years now, the agency, officially known as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), has been forced to operate under extraordinary pressure, said Guterres.



Since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, UNRWA's personnel in Gaza have endured terrible loss and hardship, with nearly 400 staff members having been killed. Hundreds of its premises remain inaccessible, severely damaged, or utterly destroyed, he told a ministerial meeting on UNRWA on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly General Debate.



In occupied East Jerusalem, schools and health centers were forcibly closed, electricity and water supplies were cut, UNRWA's headquarters was unlawfully entered and bulldozed, and its oldest vocational facility -- the Kalandia Training Centre -- was unlawfully entered and held by Israeli authorities, said Guterres.