US says UN staff should be allowed to enter Gaza amid Israeli refusal

The US threw its support behind the head of the UN's Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) Tuesday after he and Egypt said Israel is refusing to allow him to enter the besieged Gaza Strip.

"All regional governments need to do what is necessary to enable the humanitarian response and this of course includes allowing the free movement of international staff and the freedom of this movement to help with that kind of response," State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.

"Mr. (Philippe) Lazzarini and his staff, we believe, should be able to assess their operations and so we're going to continue to work with the government of Israel and other appropriate interlocutors to push for that to happen," he added.

Lazzarini told reporters in Cairo that he intended to visit southern Gaza's city of Rafah, but was informed by Israel that his entry was rejected. The claim was corroborated by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry who spoke alongside the UNRWA head.

The UN special rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, denounced Israel's refusal to grant Lazzarini access to the enclave and wrote on X that Tel Aviv is attempting to hinder witness accounts of "genocide."

UNRWA was created by the UN General Assembly more than 70 years ago to assist Palestinians who were forcibly displaced from their land.

The agency provides crucial support to millions of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and other areas where large numbers of registered Palestinians live.

Israel has accused one dozen UNRWA staffers of involvement in the Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by the Palestine group, Hamas, that started the ongoing war in Gaza.

More than 31,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in the enclave and nearly 73,800 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.