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The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will open a representative office in Ankara in the coming weeks, the agency’s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini announced Thursday during a visit to the Turkish capital.
During his visit, Lazzarini met with Turkish officials, including Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya and First Lady Emine Erdogan.
"We have signed the final agreement with the government of Türkiye, and this time it has also been endorsed by the parliament," Lazzarini told reporters, stating the office opening was now only "a question of weeks."
The announcement comes as UNRWA faces an acute financial crisis, just one day after the agency reported it had dismissed 571 Gazan staff members who had continued working after being evacuated from the war zone.
According to UNRWA, the decision was driven by severe funding shortages triggered by a decline in voluntary contributions.
UNRWA has relied on voluntary donor funding since its establishment in 1949 to provide health care, education, and social services to millions of Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.
The agency is under mounting pressure from Israel, which last year banned UNRWA from operating within its borders. Lazzarini said the Israeli government is actively seeking to dismantle the agency altogether, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank.
"There is a desire by the government of Israel to dismantle UNRWA, to make sure that the agency has no future role in Gaza and possibly in the occupied Palestinian territories," he stated.
Israeli officials have accused UNRWA of harboring members of Hamas, but internal and external reviews of the agency revealed only certain "neutrality-related issues," and Lazzarini said Israel had yet to present conclusive evidence to support its core allegations.
Lazzarini warned that any forced closure of UNRWA operations in Gaza or the West Bank would leave a substantial humanitarian gap.
"Basically, there is absolutely no partner or capacity to take over public services at such a scale and scope, and with the community trust that the agency has enjoyed until now," he cautioned.
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