EU's foreign chief calls Israel's decision to outlaw UNRWA nonsense

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Thursday urged Israel to revoke its decision to outlaw the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), calling it nonsense.

"Outlawing UNRWA – and labelling it as terrorist, which it is not – amounts to targeting regional stability and human dignity of all those benefiting from the UN agency work", he said on social media platform X.

"We join many partners in urging the Israeli government to halt this nonsense."

On Monday, the Israeli parliament preliminarily approved a bill declaring UNRWA, the main UN relief organization for Palestinians, a terrorist organization and proposing to sever relations.

"It's another attempt in a wider campaign to dismantle the agency," UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma had previously said of the bill. "Such steps are unheard of in the history of the United Nations."

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)