New York - Saba:
The United Nations said that Israel has refused to renew visas for the heads of at least three of its agencies in Gaza, a decision UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher attributed to their efforts to protect Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric confirmed Thursday evening that the visas of the local heads of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have not been renewed in recent months.
Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told the Security Council on Wednesday that the UN's humanitarian mandate is not limited to delivering aid to civilians in need and reporting on what its staff observe, but extends to advocacy and advocacy for international humanitarian law.
He added: "Every time we report what we see, we face threats of further curtailment of our access to the civilians we are trying to assist.
Nowhere is the difficulty of reconciling our mandate of humanitarian advocacy for the people of Gaza on the one hand and providing them with assistance on the other more evident than in Gaza." Fletcher explained that Israel explicitly denies or shortens visa renewals in response to our efforts to protect civilians.

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