Israel’s foreign minister has called a decision by the United Nations General Assembly to upgrade the status of Palestinians in the UN a “prize for Hamas”, Reuters reports quoting a statement released by the minister’s office.

“The absurd decision taken today at the UN General Assembly highlights the structural bias of the UN and the reasons why, under the leadership of UN Secretary-General Guterres, it has turned itself into an irrelevant institution,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.