UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini's grim assessment: 'Without firm political and financial support, we face a slow death'

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for refugees in Gaza, in Geneva, March 10, 2025. FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP

Philippe Lazzarini has led UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, for six years. His mandate, ending March 31, was marked by a series of crises of unprecedented intensity in the agency's history: the devastation of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military following the October 7, 2023 massacre; a campaign by Israel to destabilize the agency by accusing UNRWA employees of participating in the attack, in an effort to delegitimize the agency and undermine the status of Palestinian refugees; and a funding shortfall due to the withdrawal of certain donors. Despite audits highlighting its "indispensable" role and the dismissal of nine employees who may have been involved in the October 7 attack, the agency remains scarred by these crises. Its future is uncertain. No successor to Lazzarini has yet been named.

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UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini: 'There is a risk we'll get used to what I see as a deliberate and manufactured famine'