The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said today, Saturday, that the Israeli government is buying ads on the Google platform "to defame the agency and prevent users from donating to it."

He added: "As part of its campaign to undermine and discredit UNRWA, the Israeli government has purchased ads on Google to prevent users from making donations to the agency, and to conduct a smear campaign against it."

“This not only damages the agency’s reputation, but more importantly, it puts the lives of our employees at risk,” Lazzarini said in a post on the X platform.

The UNRWA Commissioner called for "deliberate efforts to spread misleading information to be stopped and investigated."

He stressed that "spreading misleading and false information is still being used as a weapon in the war on Gaza," explaining that "companies, including social media platforms, continue to make profits by spreading misleading information."

He stressed the "need for more regulations to combat misinformation and hate speech" on those platforms, noting that "UNRWA is the largest humanitarian organization responding to the crisis in Gaza."

UNRWA was subjected to an Israeli attack and systematic distortion against the backdrop of Israeli allegations against 12 employees working for the agency, which prompted 18 countries and the European Union to suspend their funding to it. However, some of those parties and countries reversed their decisions and released funding to the agency following UN investigations that proved the falsehood of those allegations.

UNRWA was established by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in 1949, and was mandated to provide assistance and protection to refugees in its five areas of operation in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.