UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday he has written to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning him that draft Israeli legislation to prevent the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) from working in the occupied Palestinian territory would be a “catastrophe.”
“Such a measure 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 told reporters.
In July the Israeli parliament gave preliminary approval to a bill that declares UNRWA a terrorist organization and proposes to sever relations with the body. Israeli leaders have accused UNRWA of collaborating with Hamas militants in Gaza.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Ismail Shakil)
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