recognized that “no reintegration would be satisfactory, or even possible, were it to be brought about by forcing people into new positions against their will”.369 369 UNGA, ‘Report of the Director of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East’ (6 November 1952) UN Doc A/RES/614 (VII) <https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/ GEN/NR0/079/57/PDF/NR007957.pdf ?OpenElement> accessed 3 October 2022. 370 The Situation in the Middle East (16 December 1982) UNGA Res 37/123 (A-F) <https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/ doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/426/01/IMG/NR042601.pdf ?OpenElement> accessed 3 October 2022. 371 Protection of Palestine Refugees (15 December 1983) UNGA Res 38/83 (I) <https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/ RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/444/75/IMG/NR044475.pdf ?OpenElement>; UNGA Res 48/40(H) (10 December 1993) UN Doc A/RES/48/40(H) <https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/179704?ln=ar> accessed 3 October 2022. 372 Nicholas Morris, ‘What Protection Means for UNRWA in Concept and Practice’ (31 March 2008) Consultant’s Report to UNRWA <https://www.unrwa.org/userfiles/20100118155412.pdf> accessed 3 October 2022. 373 UNRWA, ‘What We Do – Protection’ (UNRWA, 26 March 2018) <https://www.unrwa.org/what-we-do/protection> accessed 3 October 2022. 374 UNRWA, ‘Report of the Commission General of the UNRWA’ (30 June 1983) UN Doc A/38/13, 7 <https:// digitallibrary.un.org/record/61551?ln=en> accessed 3 October 2022. 79 Chapter Today, UNRWA has come to explicitly recognize its protective role, however it defines protection in general and self-referential terms as “what the Agency does to safeguard and advance the rights of Palestine refugees”372 through service delivery programs and engagement with relevant duty bearers.373 What was said about UNRWA’s limited capacity to protect Palestinian refugees Shatila camp, Lebanon. September 2022 (©BADIL) during humanitarian crises in the early 1980s still largely applies today: “The only means [of protection] at the disposal of [UNRWA] is [...] to report, to warn and to make representations to the authorities responsible”.374 Despite the development of its protective functions, UNRWA continues to lack an explicit mandate to provide the just and durable solution to which Palestinian refugees are entitled, nor adequately equipped to do so. In this way the “protection gap” has remained wide open. 3 UNRWA’s role was expanded once again following the Sabra and Shatila massacre that occurred in Lebanon in 1982. In the aftermath of the massacre, the General Assembly issued a resolution conferring UNRWA with an advisory status regarding refugee protection.370 In 1983, 1988 and 1993, similar resolutions reiterated the need for UNRWA to continue its efforts to preserve the security and human rights of the Palestinian refugees in the territory under Israeli occupation since 1967.371