'It would be a catastrophe' – UN sec-gen urges Israel not to block UNRWA

Knesset Member Edelstein accuses UNRWA of 'satanism'

As the Knesset considers passing bills that would shut down UNRWA’s activities in Israel, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned Israel that such a move “would be a catastrophe.”

“In the midst of all the upheaval, UNRWA, more than ever, is indispensable,” Guterres said on Tuesday, referring to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.

“UNRWA, more than ever, is irreplaceable. That’s why I have written directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express profound concern about draft legislation that could prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” he added.

Guterres said passing the proposed Knesset bills would “suffocate efforts to ease human suffering and tensions in Gaza, and indeed, the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

“It would be a catastrophe in what is already an unmitigated disaster,” he concluded.

The bills Guterres was responding to are proceeding through Israel’s legislative process after being approved by the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC) on Sunday.

Under one of the bills, UNWRA would not be allowed to “operate any institution, provide any service, or conduct any activity, whether directly or indirectly” in Israel.

The second bill would revoke a 1967 Israel-UNRWA treaty, and stipulates that “no Israeli government agencies or representatives may contact UNRWA or a representative of it,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

The bills were proposed, in part, in response to reports of Hamas infiltration into the UN agency.

Just last month, UNRWA admitted it had employed a high-level Hamas commander who was later killed in Lebanon. The terrorist was suspended from UNRWA in March, after his ties to Hamas were uncovered.

The chairman of the FADC, MK Yuli Edelstein, said that “the problem of UNRWA did not begin on October 7th,” but that it was through the deadly attack that UNRWA's true character “arose and was revealed in all of its satanism.”