Reuters. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday (January 31) the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) must be shut down.
"It's time that the international community and the U.N itself understand that UNRWA's mission has to end." Netanyahu told visiting U.N. delegates.
"It is self perpetuating also in its desire to keep alive the Palestinian refugee issue and we need to get other U.N agencies and other aid agencies replacing UNRWA if we are going to solve the problem of Gaza as we intend to do," he added.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said UNRWA was "the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza."
Major donors suspended their funding to the agency after Israel accused 12 of some 13,000 agency employees in Gaza of taking part in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that sparked a devastating Israeli offensive in Gaza.
