{"id":52769,"date":"2025-04-30T14:13:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T22:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=52769"},"modified":"2025-04-30T14:13:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T22:13:17","slug":"unrwa-chief-accuses-israel-of-torturing-staff-as-us-backs-ban-on-agency-at-world-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/30\/unrwa-chief-accuses-israel-of-torturing-staff-as-us-backs-ban-on-agency-at-world-court\/","title":{"rendered":"UNRWA Chief Accuses Israel of Torturing Staff as US Backs Ban on Agency at World Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the International Court of Justice this week weighs an Israeli ban on a United Nations agency that provides lifesaving aid in Gaza<\/a>, the program’s leader called out attacks on its workers while the United States defended Israel \u2013 the recipient of billions of dollars in U.S. military assistance.<\/p>\n

The ICJ is holding a week of hearings<\/a> in The Hague, Netherlands following the U.N. General Assembly’s December passage<\/a> of a Norwegian-led resolution asking the tribunal, which is also known as the World Court, for an advisory opinion on Israel’s legal obligation to “ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population.”<\/p>\n

Among the 38 nations and three regional blocs scheduled to address the 15 ICJ judges, only the United States and Hungary have so far defended Israel<\/a>, whose forces have killed<\/a> nearly 300 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine<\/a> Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) workers during their nearly 19-month annihilation of Gaza.<\/p>\n

“An occupational power retains a margin of appreciation concerning which relief schemes to permit,” U.S. State Department legal adviser Joshua Simmons argued before the court Wednesday, referring to Israel’s 58-year occupation of Palestine, which the ICJ ruled<\/a> an illegal form of apartheid in a June 2024 advisory opinion.<\/p>\n

“Even if an organization offering relief is an impartial humanitarian organization, and even if it is a major actor, occupation law does not compel an occupational power to allow and facilitate that specific actor’s relief operations,” Simmons continued, noting “serious concerns about UNRWA’s impartiality, including information that Hamas has used UNRWA facilities and that UNRWA staff participated in the October 7th terrorist attack against Israel” in 2023.<\/p>\n

“Given these concerns, it is clear that Israel has no obligation to permit UNRWA specifically to provide humanitarian assistance,” Simmons added. “UNRWA is not the only option for providing humanitarian assistance in Gaza.”<\/p>\n

In what UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini described<\/a> at the time as an act of “reverse due process,” the agency fired nine employees in February 2024 following Israeli allegations that they were involved in the Hamas-led attack on Israel in which more than 1,100 Israelis were killed and 251 Israeli and foreign survivors were kidnapped.<\/p>\n

Lazzarini admitted to terminating the staffers without due process or an adequate investigation of Israel’s claims. A subsequent probe<\/a> by the U.N. Office of Oversight Services “was not able to independently authenticate information used by Israel to support the allegations.”<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Lazzarini reminded<\/a> the world that “over 50 UNRWA staff \u2013 among them teachers, doctors, social workers \u2013 have been detained and abused” by Israeli forces since October 2023.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI wished for death to end the nightmare I was living through\u201d.<\/p>\n

Received this awful testimony from a colleague who was rounded up in #Gaza<\/a> tortured while in Israeli detention and finally released.<\/p>\n

For @UNRWA<\/a> staff humanitarian duty is met with brutality.
Since the start of\u2026<\/p>\n

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) April 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n