The leader of the organization that helps Palestinian refugees says he can’t go to Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini said it was the first time this had ever happened to a leader of UNRWA.
Speaking to the media, Mr. Lazzarini said it would be easy to send a lot of food to Gaza, but he couldn’t go there this week.
He said that Israel picked only him and he disagreed with their reason for not letting him in.
Mr Lazzarini, who has visited Gaza many times before, says he was the only one in his group who was not allowed to enter by the Israeli defence body COGAT on Monday.
Israel is feeling pressure from its Western allies. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to invade Rafah, where he believes there are still Hamas soldiers.
The country has been blamed for stopping aid from reaching Gaza, but it says it didn’t do that. The UN said this could be considered a war crime.
Mr Lazzarini said it’s simple to send lots of food to Gaza and to change things for the better.
He said, “I was supposed to go to Gaza on Monday. ” I was in Cairo when the Israeli authorities told me I couldn’t go to Gaza, even though the rest of my group could.
“This is the first time ever that the boss of the agency was not allowed to go into Gaza on purpose. ”
UNRWA is the biggest help group in Gaza. Israel says that the agency is protecting Hamas and claims that 12 UNRWA workers were involved in the attack on southern Israel on October 7th.
When someone asked Mr. Miliband what he would tell Israeli officials, he said, “I would tell them to allow more trucks to go in. ”
“Simplify the process for checking things, once the UN has checked the food, you need to make sure everything runs smoothly. ”
“We also need to open more ways for people to cross into Gaza so that everyone there can get food help. ”
“Up in the north of Gaza, there are people who were thought to be safe from the fighting after the first few months. ”
“Al Shifa hospital is seeing more fighting, but it’s not okay to block food aid for military reasons. “
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UN agency head claims Israel prevented him from reaching Gaza
