‘Reprehensible’: UN slams Israeli spokesman’s comments on UNRWA chief

Israeli government official calling Phillipe Lazzarini a ‘terrorist sympathiser’ also puts his safety at risk, UN says.

The United Nations has denounced an Israeli government spokesperson for calling the head of its agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) a “terrorist sympathiser”.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the comments by Israel’s David Mencer were “downright dangerous”.

Mencer took aim at UNRWA head Phillipe Lazzarini in a videotaped speech on Wednesday, saying his agency had been deeply infiltrated by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“Now if the UN was doing what it was designed to do, then Philippe Lazzarini should be one of the good guys, but he is not,” Mencer said.

“He [Lazzarini] is one of the bad guys. A terrorist sympathiser. A Jew-killing enabler. A liar.”

The UN’s Dujarric called the rhetoric “reprehensible”, warning that it jeopardises Lazzarini’s safety.

“Using the kind of inflammatory language he used to describe Mr Lazzarini … in an environment that is already extremely volatile – is reprehensible and downright dangerous,” Dujarric told Al Jazeera.

“It puts at risk a senior UN official whose only focus is on helping civilians in Gaza. To alleviate their suffering,” he said.

UNRWA under fire

Israel has for years campaigned against the UNRWA, the main organisation delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and caring for Palestinian refugees in other countries, claiming it has connections with “terrorists” and lobbying for its closure.

Earlier this year, Israel accused the agency of employing staff who participated in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel, pushing more than a dozen international donors to suspend support.

A UN-authorised independent review found that Israel had not provided credible evidence for its accusations and most donors have since reinstated funding.

There is a separate investigation into the October attack itself, by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services.

Israeli attacks in Gaza have frequently targeted UNRWA facilities, killing 197 of its staff members and striking 70 percent of its schools, according to the organisation.

“All rules of war have been broken in Gaza”, with at least eight schools housing displaced Palestinians attacked by Israel in the last 10 days, Lazzarini said.

At least 25 people died in a strike on the latest school to be hit, al-Razi school in the central Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Palestinian officials.

UN chief Guterres has warned that “there is no alternative to UNRWA” in Gaza, calling it a “critical lifeline” for Palestinian refugees.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said at least 38,794 people have been killed and 89,364 wounded in Israel’s war on the enclave. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks in October is estimated at 1,139, with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.