Dismantling the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), as sought by Israel, would accelerate Gaza’s slide into famine and doom generations of children to despair, the organisation’s head has warned, AFP reports.

Israel accuses UNRWA of being a front for Hamas, which controls Gaza. It says the agency employs more than 400 “terrorists” in the besieged territory.

UNRWA is a major provider of education as well as food to Palestinian refugees, defined as Palestinians who fled or were expelled around the time of Israel’s 1948 creation, or their descendants.

However, the agency is the backbone of UN humanitarian operations in Gaza, its director Philippe Lazzarini told the UN Security Council.

Referring to Israel, he said there is an “insidious campaign” under way to dismantle UNRWA and that this would have lasting consequences. “In the short-term, it will deepen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and accelerate the onset of famine,” Lazzarini said.