UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned on the 8th that two new bills under consideration by Israel's parliament 'would be a catastrophe' for the Gaza Strip.

　　Speaking at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York that day, Guterres said that 'the nightmare in Gaza has entered a cruel and despicable second year.' Since the escalation of a new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict on October 7 last year, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and thousands more are missing.

　　Guterres said the Gaza Strip has become the epicenter of human suffering, with nearly the entire local population displaced. The number of journalists killed is unprecedented in modern conflicts, and humanitarian workers face unprecedented danger.

　　Guterres stated that over the past year, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has played 'a role in Gaza more indispensable and irreplaceable than ever before.' That is why he wrote directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express 'deep concern' over draft legislation that could prohibit UNRWA from continuing its essential work in the occupied Palestinian territory.

　　Guterres warned that Israel's new bills would obstruct efforts to alleviate suffering and tension in Gaza and the entire occupied Palestinian territory, and that this would be a catastrophe, 'one more catastrophe on top of an already unmitigated catastrophe.'

　　Guterres pointed out that UNRWA is an indispensable part of the international humanitarian emergency response in the Gaza Strip, and that Israel's new bills could deal a heavy blow to international humanitarian relief in Gaza, including effectively terminating coordination of UN convoys, offices and shelters serving hundreds of thousands of people, bringing work to provide food, shelter and medical services to most of Gaza's population to a halt, and depriving 660,000 children in Gaza of the only entity capable of restarting education.

　　Guterres said the new bills being pushed by Israel's parliament run counter to the UN Charter and directly violate Israel's obligations under international law. He stressed that national legislation cannot change these obligations. From a political perspective, such legislation would deal a huge setback to sustainable peace efforts and the 'two-state solution,' and trigger more instability and insecurity.

　　According to reports, Israel's parliament reviewed two bills over the weekend, one aimed at prohibiting UNRWA from carrying out any activities or providing services within Israeli territory, and the other aimed at terminating the legal agreement that has allowed the agency to operate since 1967. The two bills are expected to be formally submitted for a vote later this month.