ISTANBUL 

Qatar condemned on Sunday Israel's attempt to dismantle the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and classify it as a "terrorist organization.”

This attempt is “an extension of the systematic campaign aimed at dismantling the agency at a time when the need for its humanitarian services is dire due to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip,” the Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It renewed calls for the international community “to stand firmly in the face of Israeli plans aimed at liquidating the agency and depriving millions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon of its necessary services.”

Qatar reiterated its full support for the UN refugee agency, “based on its firm and steadfast position on the legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian people, foremost of which is their right to establish their independent state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

On Wednesday, the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) advanced a bill to revoke the immunity and privileges afforded to UNRWA, in a move seen by Palestinians and the UN as part of an Israeli campaign to dismantle UNRWA and resolve the refugee issue.

Israel accuses UNRWA employees of contributing to the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, claiming that the agency’s education system “supports terrorism and hatred."

More than 36,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip nearly eight months ago following a Hamas attack. The majority of those killed have been women and children, with over 82,600 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid Israel's crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi