A comprehensive UN Watch report has exposed this week how Palestinian terror organizations, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, systematically influence the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees' (UNRWA) decision-making processes. This influence stems from ongoing meetings between organization representatives and senior UNRWA officials spanning several years, including Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, who has held the position since 2020.
The report documents how senior UN officials and local leadership conducted meetings with terror organizations in Lebanon and Gaza, openly praising their "cooperation" and treating each other as strategic partners. These terror organizations regularly present demands to UNRWA and shape the international agency's policy decisions.
The investigation further reveals that UNRWA Commissioner Philippe Lazzarini and his international staff devote significant resources to maintaining relationships with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Under their watch, these terror organizations have gained access to UNRWA facilities, disseminated propaganda targeting Palestinian children to promote extremist ideologies, and constructed military infrastructure in proximity to or beneath agency installations.
A notable example occurred in March 2019, when UNRWA Commissioner Philippe Lazzarini, then serving as UN envoy to Lebanon, met with senior Hamas figure Hajj Izzat Mansour. Mansour, who leads Hamas operations in Lebanon's eastern Baalbek district, discussed filling vacant teaching positions with individuals connected to his organization.
In March 2021, Lazzarini, now an agency commissioner, visited the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon. During this visit, he engaged with a Palestinian umbrella organization overseeing local cells of Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other groups. These terror cells voiced opposition to implementing a biometric refugee database for aid distribution, likely to preserve their ability to manipulate beneficiary numbers and increase aid demands.
A subsequent meeting in December 2021 brought Lazzarini together with Ali Ahmad Huwaidi in Beirut. Huwaidi, a known Hamas advocate seeking to expand the organization's influence within UNRWA, expressed concerns about the agency's financial stability and stressed the importance of maintaining donor support. The report notes Huwaidi's thinly veiled threat that defunding UNRWA would trigger a "military confrontation costing donors substantially more than maintaining agency funding."
In late 2023, barely two months after the Oct. 7 attack, Lazzarini met with senior Hamas official Khaled Zuaiter at Ain el-Hilweh. Zuaiter, who commands the Hamas presence in the Lebanese refugee camp, presented a memorandum requesting increased UNRWA funding during their discussion.
The report details how terror organizations have successfully opposed multiple UNRWA initiatives, including the biometric database implementation, a proposed ethical code supporting LGBTQ rights, and staff suspensions for neutrality violations. Their influence extends to effectively blocking UNRWA actions through systematic threats.
Most recently, in May 2024, Lazzarini traveled to Beirut to address protests against the local UNRWA branch following the suspension of Fathi al-Sharif, the UNRWA Teachers' Union leader and Hamas operative. During this visit, Lazzarini's meetings included representatives from various terror organizations, extending to Houthi activists from Yemen operating in Lebanon.
