Pakistan warned Wednesday against the dangers of dismantling the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that provides aid to Palestinian refugees.

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Munir Akram stated this during a briefing on the aid agency at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), as per Radio Pakistan.

He said that by targeting the UNRWA, Israel sought to “dismantle not only the structures that are critical to providing humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people but also to erode the identity of Palestinian people and the rights they possess”.

The representative described the role of UNRWA as being critical to the successful implementation of the ceasefire, the provision of adequate humanitarian assistance and the reconstruction of Gaza.

US ‘supports’ Israel’s push to cut contact with UNRWA: envoy

His statement comes after Israel’s UN ambassador said that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees must end operations and leave all its premises in Jerusalem by January 30.

Israeli lawmakers have passed legislation that bars the UNRWA from operating in Israel and east Jerusalem, the sector of the city annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six Day War.

Israel has also passed a law that prohibits contact between Israeli officials and UNRWA, but its parliament has not technically banned the agency from operating in Gaza or the West Bank.