UNRWA has the capacity and expertise to support a postwar Gaza. We want to help make this peace work - Philippe Lazzarini in The Guardian

Palestinians ride a donkey cart past destroyed buildings in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, 3 November 2025. Photograph: Ramadan Abed/Reuters

With a ceasefire in place, rebuilding must begin, justice be delivered and healing seriously addressed by Palestinian and Israeli societies

• Philippe Lazzarini is the commissioner-general of Unrwa 

".... The path to recovery in Gaza will not be straightforward. The ceasefire is tenuous, with almost daily breaches testing the resolve of its guarantors. A ceasefire that merely prolongs the absence of war without charting a viable path to peace would only repeat the disastrous mistakes of the past. A truly peaceful future requires a genuine investment in a definitive political solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Basic security is needed for recovery to take a firm hold. The ceasefire must be buttressed by an international stabilisation force mandated to maintain calm, protect critical infrastructure and guarantee humanitarian access. Such a force would create the necessary space for Palestinian institutions to be rebuilt.

The success of a stabilisation force, and the transition from emergency to stability, will also depend on providing Palestinians in Gaza with reliable public services and a credible pathway to peace and respect for human rights. This can only be accomplished through a capable civil service that has the trust of the community.

We have previously seen the consequences of underestimating the need to provide stable and effective public services – most strikingly in Iraq, when dismantling the civilian administration in 2003 created a governance vacuum that unleashed years of instability. Gaza’s professionals, administrators and community leaders must be part of the solution, not casualties of political resets.

Unrwa, with its thousands of Palestinian personnel, has the capacity, expertise and community trust required to provide healthcare, education and other public services to a devastated population. For decades, the agency’s teachers, doctors and engineers have formed a vital part of a functioning system of public services for millions of Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the region.

In its advisory opinion last month, the international court of justice reaffirmed the professionalism of Unrwa’s staff, underlined the agency’s indispensable humanitarian role and concluded that Unrwa remains an impartial and neutral actor...." READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/10/unrwa-rebuild-gaza-peace-israel-palestine?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

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