Albares to receive UNRWA high commissioner on Monday amid regional war in the Middle East

Eduardo González Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares will receive Philippe Lazzarini, the High Commissioner for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), in Madrid on Monday. This comes as conflict erupts across the region following the US-Israeli offensive on February 28 against Iran and the subsequent retaliatory actions by the Islamic Republic. “The Middle East has become the most dangerous place in the world for health workers, humanitarian workers, UN staff, and journalists,” Lazzarini declared last Thursday in a social media post. “It is also one of the most dangerous for civilians. This cannot be normalized. International humanitarian law matters. Responsibility matters,” he added. That same day, the High Commissioner warned that “once again, escalating violence across the region is forcing thousands of people to flee their homes in southern Lebanon.” “The current evacuation orders for four neighborhoods in southern Beirut are generating panic and an increase in forced and mass displacement,” he denounced. “As part of the broader efforts of the Lebanese authorities and civil society, UNRWA has opened emergency shelters for displaced people; Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian refugees alike. Lebanon needs peace, not more destruction, displacement, and death,” he concluded. UNRWA was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1949 with the mandate to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees registered in the Agency’s area of operations, “pending a just and lasting solution to their situation.” The agency operates in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, where it guarantees access to education, health, humanitarian aid, and social services for 5.9 million Palestinian refugees (almost a quarter of the world’s refugee population). To carry out its work, UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states. Almost two years ago, in April 2024, the Spanish government awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic to Philippe Lazzarini, at Albares's suggestion. Since the outbreak of the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, Spain has steadily increased its financial and political support for UNRWA, despite the decision by a group of countries to freeze their contributions to the agency after a dozen employees (out of a staff of 30,000) were accused of participating in the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. Last October, the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) passed two laws prohibiting UNRWA's activities in the Palestinian territories and East Jerusalem, arguing that it is a "terrorist" organization. Three months later, last January, the Spanish government expressed its rejection of the entry into force of the Israeli parliamentary laws (Knesset) that impede UNRWA operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and demanded their suspension. “UNRWA is essential and irreplaceable for the lives of the six million refugees it serves, and for regional stability, and Spain firmly supports its work,” it stated. For his part, Philippe Lazzarini warned the UN Security Council that “the implementation of the Knesset legislation will increase instability and deepen despair in occupied Palestine, a territory at a critical juncture.”

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