Rhino: Agencies – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday that he has written to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning him that an Israeli bill to prevent the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from operating in the occupied Palestinian territories would be “catastrophic”.
“Such a measure would stifle efforts to alleviate human suffering and tension in Gaza and, of course, in the entire OPT,” he told reporters. “It would be a disaster in what is already a full-blown catastrophe.
Israel’s Knesset in July tentatively approved a bill to declare UNRWA a terrorist organization and propose cutting ties with the agency. Israeli leaders accuse UNRWA of collaborating with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza Strip.