UNRWA fears new 'tragedy' as Lebanon violence adds strain

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees is bracing for a triple crisis as Israeli strikes on Lebanon add to the strain it is facing in Gaza and the West Bank, its chief told AFP on Tuesday.

UNRWA, founded in 1949, provides services, including education and healthcare, for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

With three of its area of operations turning into "active frontlines," the embattled agency already grappling with a severe financial shortfall is poised to come under even more pressure, said UNRWA's Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

"We already have Gaza, we already have the West Bank, so we have two fields of operation which have become active frontlines," he said.

"We (now) also have Lebanon, which would mean that basically three... contexts of operation will become humanitarian emergencies," he added, calling the situation a "triple tragedy."

Faced with mounting Israeli strikes, UNRWA has paused some operations in Lebanon as it converts its schools into shelters for hundreds of people displaced from the south of the country.

Displacement soared after Israel pummelled Hezbollah targets on Monday, killing at least 558 people in the deadliest day of violence in the country since its 1975-90 civil war, according to local authorities.

"The fear is that... we are going into a full-fledged war," Lazzarini told AFP as world leaders gathered at the United Nations for its annual diplomatic event.

"Another concern is that parts of Lebanon becomes like Gaza."

- 'More strain' -

The October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and the ensuing Israeli war on Gaza has piled threats on UNRWA, the only UN organization created to aid a specific refugee population.

At least 222 UNRWA staff have been killed and two-thirds of the agency's facilities in Gaza have been damaged and destroyed since the start of the Gaza war.

"Depending on how the war will be unfolding in Lebanon, we have thousands of staff there, it is not excluded... that staff will also be killed," Lazzarini said.

A new front in Lebanon "will put much more strain on us. The needs will increase and we will also need more support from the donors," the UNRWA chief added.

The agency saw a series of funding cuts earlier this year after Israel accused more than a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of involvement in the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Most donors have since resumed funding with the exception of the United States, UNRWA's largest financial backer.

"UNRWA has enough funding until the end of October," Lazzarini said.

With an $80 million shortfall for 2024, Lazzarini is hosting a donor conference on the sidelines of this UN General Assembly this week to shore up pledges from donors.

The main outcome the UNRWA chief is seeking is "to make sure that we can operate till the end of the year" but also to secure longer term commitments from donors.

"I'm very concerned about 2025 because there is a certain number of traditional donors who will go through austerity measures and who will reduce their oversea budget," he said, without naming any state.