Israel has refused to renew visas for heads of at least 3 UN agencies in Gaza

Winnipeg Free Press

6 days ago

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Israel has refused to renew visas for the heads of at least three United Nations agencies in Gaza, which the U.N. humanitarian chief blames on their work trying to protect Palestinian civilians in the war-torn territory.
Visas for the local leaders of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA; the human rights agency OHCHR; and the agency supporting Palestinians in Gaza, UNRWA, have not been renewed in recent months, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed.
Tom Fletcher, U.N. head of humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council on Wednesday that the U.N.'s humanitarian mandate is not just to provide aid to civilians in need and report what its staff witnesses but to advocate for international humanitarian law.
'Each time we report on what we see, we face threats of further reduced access to the civilians we are trying to serve,' he said. 'Nowhere today is the tension between our advocacy mandate and delivering aid greater than in Gaza.'
Fletcher said, 'Visas are not renewed or reduced in duration by Israel, explicitly in response to our work on protection of civilians.'
Israel's U.N. mission did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment about the visa renewals. Israel has been sharply critical of UNRWA, even before Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack in southern Israel — accusing the agency of colluding with Hamas and teaching anti-Israel hatred, which UNRWA vehemently denies.
Since then, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies have claimed that UNRWA is deeply infiltrated by Hamas and that its staffers participated in the Oct. 7 attacks. Israel formally banned UNRWA from operating in its territory, and its commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, has been barred from entering Gaza.
At Wednesday's Security Council meeting, Fletcher called conditions in Gaza 'beyond vocabulary,' with food running out and Palestinians seeking something to eat being shot. He said Israel, the occupying power in Gaza, is failing in its obligation under the Geneva Conventions to provide for civilian needs.
In response, Israel accused OCHA of continuing 'to abandon all semblance of neutrality and impartiality in its statements and actions, despite claiming otherwise.'
Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly, political coordinator at Israel's U.N. Mission, told the Security Council that some of its 15 members seem to forget that the Oct. 7 attacks killed about 1,200 people and some 250 were taken hostage, triggering the war in Gaza and the humanitarian situation.
'Instead, we're presented with a narrative that forces Israel into a defendant's chair, while Hamas, the very cause of this conflict and the very instigator of suffering of Israelis but also of Palestinians, goes unmentioned, unchallenged and immune to condemnation,' she said.
More than 58,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half were women and children.
Ravina Shamdasani, chief spokesperson for the Geneva-based U.N. human rights body, confirmed Thursday that the head of its office in the occupied Palestinian territories 'has been denied entry into Gaza.'
'The last time he tried to enter was in February 2025 and since then, he has been denied entry,' she told The Associated Press. 'Unfortunately, this is not unusual. Aid workers, U.N. staff, journalists and others have been denied access to Gaza.'
Israel has accused a U.N.-backed commission probing abuses in Gaza, whose three members just resigned, and the Human Rights Council's independent investigator Francesca Albanese of antisemitism.
Albanese has accused Israel of 'genocide' in Gaza, which it and its ally the U.S. vehemently deny. The Trump administration recently issued sanctions against Albanese.
Fletcher, the U.N. humanitarian chief, told the Security Council that Israel also is not granting 'security clearances' for staff to enter Gaza to continue their work and that U.N. humanitarian partners are increasingly being denied entry as well.
He noted that '56% of the entries denied into Gaza in 2025 were for emergency medical teams — frontline responders who save lives.'
'Hundreds of aid workers have been killed; and those who continue to work endure hunger, danger and loss, like everyone else in the Gaza Strip,' Fletcher said.
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AP writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.