ISTANBUL

The commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has said that thousands of archival refugee files from Gaza and the occupied West Bank have been transferred to a "safe location."

In a statement late Friday, Philippe Lazzarini emphasized that “UNRWA is the custodian of the Palestine Refugees' identity and history.”

He said: "The Agency's family archives for Palestine Refugees have been kept and persevered for the past 75 years" and “Thanks to dedicated UNRWA teams, thousands of archive files from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were brought to safety and digitized."

"The preservation of these files is essential to protecting the rights of Palestine Refugees under international law,” he said, adding: “It is time for a peaceful diplomatic solution that will end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including addressing the plight of Palestine Refugees once and for all."

On Oct. 28, 2024, the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset, passed a law prohibiting UNRWA’s operations in the occupied territories after accusing UN workers of participating in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel. The UN agency denies any involvement in the attacks.

According to Lazzarini, the ban would have a "disastrous impact on the people we support."

UNRWA was established shortly after the 1948 Palestinian Nakba to assist refugees displaced by the establishment of the state of Israel. It currently operates in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, serving approximately 5.9 million Palestinians.

Israel has killed more than 46,000 people, mostly women and children, in Gaza since the Hamas border incursion.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi