United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has shared at the Doha Forum heart-wrenching stories of loss and pain that his agency staff experienced in Gaza.

"In Gaza, everyone has lost weight and is hungry,” he told Sunday Times chief foreign correspondent Christina Lamb Sunday during a Newsmaker interview. “They (survive) by eating animal fodder."

"Imagine wearing the same shoes and same clothes for 14 months, and going from one rubble to the other,” Lazzarini said. “We have staff who described how they had to recover (the remains of) their children and relatives (and having) to put them in a garbage (bag for the) funeral.”

The UNRWA chief, who said that agency staff is facing the darkest hour, added that the agency’s activities are being blocked.

“Our premises have been hit – targeted and damaged – since the beginning of the war,” he said. “Hundreds of people seeking the protection of the UN have been killed while they were on our premises.”

Lazzarini lamented that the international community has failed to implement a fair and lasting political solution to the Palestinian question.

“It has been 75 years of a temporary lasting organisation,” he pointed out.”

“So, if we are still here 75 years later, there is no doubt that this is the expression of a collective failure of the International community to have promoted a fair and lasting political solution to the Palestinian question,” the official added.

Lazzarini, who noted that there are attempts to dismantle and shut down the UNRWA, said that there is an overarching political objective to strip the Palestinians from their refugee status and not to address the issue politically in future.

“It's extraordinary, in terms of defiance, that one member state decided to defile the mandate (that was) provided by all the other member states at the General Assembly, to prevent and dismantle the agency which the rest of the international community has said will be the one we put in place to support the Palestinian refugees,” he said.

Lazzarini said that the UNRWA is extending tremendous services to Palestinians while providing education and promoting gender equality.

“The agency provided education to millions of girls and boys,” he stated. “Many of them later on have been extremely successful and giving back to the communities.”

“They have contributed to the prosperity in the region when it comes to primary health,” the official added.

Asked about the freezing of UNRWA funds, Lazzarini said that the threat of funding deficiency is looming.

The agency could raise private funds, he said, and some countries have raised money to cover the shortfall, while some new donor countries from the global south have joined the donors list after the events of October 7, 2023.