The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, founded in 1949 to support Palestinian refugees, is no stranger to controversy. Its own staff warned in 1951 that Arab refusal to resettle refugees as Israel had done with Jewish refugees risked perpetuating conflict and recommended that the agency dissolve itself. That warning was prescient but unheeded. Instead, rejectionist Arab states hijacked the UNRWA as a lever against peace and reconciliation.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said 89 staff members of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began a month ago.