Ireland’s Prime Minister Simon Harris has urged the EU to review trade ties with Israel over Israeli lawmakers’ “despicable” ban on the UN’s Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, AFP reports.

The Irish leader criticised the Israeli parliament’s “shameful” banning of the agency, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza.

“The most important action that the European Union could take right now is reviewing trade relations,” Harris told reporters in Dublin before meeting incoming European Council president Antonio Costa.

“What Israel and the Israeli Knesset did last night was despicable, disgraceful and shameful. More people will die, more children will starve,” he said.

Harris added there was “no alternative” to UNRWA, and that he would discuss with Costa “how Europe now needs to find the moral courage … to act in relation to this.

“Ireland, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia and others have been calling for more actions at an EU level. I think that would be a very effective way and I’ll be continuing to make that case,” he said.