The U.S.-created Board of Peace recently met with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), despite publicly stating that the agency has no role in Gaza. This information was revealed by Philippe Lazzarini, the former head of UNRWA, who noted that members of the Palestinian technocratic committee—selected by the Board of Peace to eventually govern Gaza—have been more open to working with UNRWA than it appears. Israel has previously accused UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas militants, but these claims have not been substantiated by the International Court of Justice. UNRWA remains the largest aid provider in Gaza, playing a critical role in health and education. Lazzarini emphasized that UNRWA has more workers in Gaza than any other U.N. agency or nongovernmental organization, employing approximately 11,000 Palestinian staff. These workers provide an average of 14,000 medical appointments daily, maintain water and waste management systems for over a million Palestinians, and run educational programs for more than 280,000 children. Although the Board of Peace has not publicly included UNRWA in its planning for Gaza's reconstruction, naming other U.N. agencies as partners, behind the scenes, the Palestinian committee has acknowledged the necessity of UNRWA's involvement in planning, according to Lazzarini. Two senior U.N. officials and a Board of Peace representative confirmed that the board has met multiple times with UNRWA officials since the ceasefire was signed, discussing potential collaboration on Gaza's future. A meeting summary from April, obtained by The Associated Press, indicated that the Palestinian committee recognized UNRWA's potential to lead efforts in reconstructing refugee camps, though this was described as a highly political issue. Lazzarini mentioned that shortly before his tenure ended, he spoke with Ali Shaath, a former Palestinian Authority deputy minister and leader of the Palestinian committee, who reportedly said, "I don’t know how I can succeed without you." An internal U.N. account of a January 26 meeting in Cairo, which did not include UNRWA, noted that Shaath praised the agency and expressed a clear intention to restore its role, with the Palestinian committee's system largely based on UNRWA's prior work. At a pledging conference for UNRWA on June 30, the agency's current acting chief, Christian Saunders, emphasized UNRWA's "vital" role in the efforts of the Board of Peace and the Palestinian committee to move forward with the ceasefire. However, a Board of Peace official stated that the meetings focused on understanding how UNRWA operates to develop programs that are "far more efficient and accountable." The official claimed that "UNRWA’s days are over," though its employees "will remain if they pass vetting and are delivering on their mandate and not advancing ideology or Hamas interests." Lazzarini described this as an "absurd contradiction" — the Board of Peace claims UNRWA is not needed, while U.N. member countries expect it to deliver. He also noted that he has faced personal attacks, including "extraordinary vicious, heinous attacks on social media" and being accosted in the streets in Geneva and New York by "pro-Israeli groups." UNRWA was established to assist Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation. In January 2024, Israel claimed, without providing proof, that hundreds of Palestinian militants worked for the agency and that over a dozen of its employees took part in the October 7 attack. Lazzarini said he was never given written evidence to back up these allegations, but he does not regret his decision to fire the employees accused of participating in the attack.