The head of the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees”, UNRWA, claimed on Sunday that Israeli authorities had barred him from entering Gaza for a second time since the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7, AFP reported.
"Just this week, they have denied -- for the second time -- my entry to Gaza where I planned to be with our UNRWA colleagues including those on the front lines," Philippe Lazzarini wrote on social media.
"The Israeli authorities continue to deny humanitarian access to the United Nations," he charged.
"Only in the past two weeks, we have recorded 10 incidents involving shooting at convoys, arrests of UN staff including bullying, stripping them naked, threats with arms & long delays at checkpoints forcing convoys to move during the dark or abort," Lazzarini said.
Lazzarini has been to Gaza four times since the war broke out, including on March 17. He claimed during that visit that Israel had blocked him from entering the Gaza Strip.
Lazzarini said during a joint press conference in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry that he had "intended to go into Rafah today, but was informed my entry had been declined."
Later, Lazzarini wrote in a lengthy post on social media that he had been denied entry to Gaza by "Israeli authorities".
The unit for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) responded to Lazzarini’s post at the time and wrote, “The UNRWA commissioner’s request to coordinate his entry into the Gaza Strip was not submitted by the necessary coordination processes and channels. This was promptly communicated to the relevant UN bodies.”
“This is another attempt by UNRWA to blame Israel for their own mistakes,” added COGAT.
Israel in January said that 12 UNRWA staff had taken part in Hamas’ October 7 attack. Among other things, Israel said those workers kidnapped a woman, handed out ammunition and actively taking part in the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri, where 97 people were murdered.
While Lazzarini announced that the UN agency had launched an investigation into the employees in question, he has also insisted he had no knowledge of how deep Hamas is involved in UNRWA, and has repeatedly accused Israel of "a deliberate and concerted campaign" aimed at ending UNRWA’s work.
A review group which was appointed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to look into Israel’s allegations against UNRWA recently released its report. The report found neutrality-related issues" in UNRWA but also claimed that Israel had yet to provide evidence for allegations that a significant number of its staff were members of terrorist organizations.
Later, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that UN investigators closed one case against an UNRWA employee due to a lack of evidence from Israel and suspended three more.