Israel was aiming to ensure “UNRWA will not be a part of the day after”, foreign minister Israel Katz said on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that he would try to gather support from the US, European Union, and other major donors to the agency.

Palestinian group Hamas slammed Israel’s “threats” against UNRWA today, urging the UN and other international organisations not to “cave in to the threats and blackmail”.

UNRWA said yesterday that it had sacked several employees accused by Israel of involvement in Hamas’ unprecedented Oct 7 attack, prompting the US to suspend critical funding.

The head of the agency, Philippe Lazzarini, vowed to hold “accountable, including through criminal prosecution” any UNRWA employee found to have taken part in acts of terror.

In response to the firings, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres pledged to conduct an “urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA”, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The US state department said it had “temporarily paused additional funding” to the agency while it reviewed the claims as well as the UN’s plan to address concerns.

Twelve employees “may have been involved”, it added.

Australia and Canada also said they had suspended their funding to the agency.

Israel’s relentless bombardment and siege of Gaza began soon after Hamas’s unprecedented Oct 7 attack that resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Fighters also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas and Gaza’s health ministry says the Israeli military offensive has killed at least 26,083 people, about 70% of them women and children.