Philippe Lazzarini says Unrwa has been ‘sounding alarm bells for months’ over famine and violence in Gaza but law has been ‘blatantly disregarded’
The commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) has warned that Gaza is “becoming the graveyard of international humanitarian law”.
In an interview with El País, Philippe Lazzarini, said Unrwa had been “warning about the signs of famine and sounding the alarm bells for months” but that its warnings had “fallen on deaf ears”. He added that through its health centres, Unrwa had seen the number of acutely malnourished children in Gaza City had increased “sixfold in the last [six] months”.
He also described the West Bank as seeing “unprecedented levels of violence and forced displacement, which would surely be making today’s headlines if they hadn’t been overshadowed by the disaster in Gaza”.
Asked about international humanitarian law and for multilateral cooperation in future conflicts, Lazzarini said:
