Israel refuses to renew visas for agency heads in Gaza, UN says

Euronews

18-07-2025

Israel has refused to renew the visas for the heads of at least three United Nations agencies in Gaza, which the UN humanitarian chief said was "explicitly in response to our work on protection of civilians."
Visas for the local leaders of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the human rights agency OHCHR and the agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have not been renewed in recent months, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric confirmed.
Tom Fletcher, UN head of humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council on Wednesday that the UN'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."
Israel's UN Mission said it is looking into the issue. 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 7 October 2023 incursion into southern Israel.
Israel formally stopped UNRWA from operating in its territory and its commissioner general, Swiss-Italian humanitarian Philippe Lazzarini, is subject to a ban on entering Gaza.
The UN identified the other two local agency chiefs affected as Jonathan Whittall, a South African humanitarian expert for OCHA, and Ajith Sunghay, a British-educated international lawyer for OHCHR.
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."
Ravina Shamdasani, chief spokesperson for the Geneva-based UN human rights body, confirmed on Thursday that the head of its office in the occupied Palestinian territories "has been denied entry into Gaza."
Fletcher, the UN humanitarian chief, told the Security Council that Israel is also not granting "security clearances" for staff to enter Gaza to continue their work and that UN 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.
But in a rare entrance to the territory by a delegation of outsiders, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III entered Gaza on Friday morning to express the "shared pastoral solicitude of the Churches of the Holy Land."
The delegation said it was also planning on sending hundreds of tons of food aid, medical supplies and equipment to families in Gaza, the patriarchate said, adding they also had "ensured evacuation" of individuals injured in the attack to hospitals outside the Strip.
Funerals for Christians killed in church attack
Meanwhile, funerals were held at the Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza for two of the three Christians killed in an Israeli strike on the Holy Family Catholic Church on Thursday.
The three people killed in the Israeli attack were Christian Orthodox living at the Holy Family Church together with dozens of others people who had been displaced.
The shelling also damaged the church compound, which was being used as a shelter for both Christians and Muslims, including a number of children with disabilities, according to Fadel Naem, the acting director of Al-Ahli Hospital which received the casualties.
US President Donald Trump called Netanyahu to express his frustration with Israel's military striking the church, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Leavitt said Trump did not have a "positive reaction" to the strike and that Netanyahu "agreed" to put out a statement as part of the conversation.
Netanyahu later released a statement saying Israel "deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza's Holy Family Church."
The Israeli military said an initial assessment indicated that "fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly" and said it was still investigating.
The military said it only strikes militant targets and "makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and religious structures, and regrets any unintentional damage caused to them."
Israel has repeatedly struck schools, shelters, hospitals and other civilian buildings, accusing Hamas militants of sheltering inside and blaming them for civilian deaths.