Fabrice Coffrini / AFP
Dismantling the UN agency for Palestinian refugees would be a disaster, its chief said Tuesday, as pressure rose after Israel said it had found a Hamas tunnel beneath its Gaza headquarters.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini called for an independent investigation once the conflict between Israel and Hamas is over, looking into the tunnel allegations and the destruction of United Nations premises in the Gaza Strip.
"Maybe after this cataclysm which has hit the region in Gaza, it might be time now to genuinely find a political solution, and it would be a disaster that, just before it, we get rid of... UNRWA," Lazzarini told reporters.
UNRWA is the main aid organisation in the Gaza Strip, which is now gripped by a serious humanitarian crisis due to the war.
Israel's foreign minister called Saturday for Lazzarini to quit following Israeli claims that a Hamas tunnel had been discovered under its evacuated Gaza City headquarters.
Lazzarini said the tunnel was discovered 20 metres below ground.
Israel faced growing international pressure on Tuesday to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas, as it prepared for an incursion into the crowded southern city of Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.
Lazzarini said the Rafah situation was "deeply concerning", with people "anxious and in fear" of a major military assault "in the middle of a sea of displaced people".
"There is absolutely no safe place in Rafah anymore."
More than 150 UNRWA installations have been hit since the war began, he added.
The war began after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also took about 250 people hostage, around 130 of whom are still in Gaza, according to Israeli figures. Israel says 29 of the remaining captives are presumed dead.
Vowing to eliminate Hamas, Israel launched a massive military offensive in Gaza that the Hamas-run territory's health ministry says has killed at least 28,473 people, mostly women and children.
As for calls for UNRWA to be dismantled, Lazzarini said they were "short-sighted" and "weakening our collective ability to respond to the humanitarian crisis" in the Gaza Strip.
"If we want to give a chance to any future transition to succeed we need also to make sure that the international community has the tools -- and one of these tools is UNRWA," he said.
"We have been a temporary agency which unfortunately has lasted for 75 years. But 75 years is because there hasn't been any political solution."
