Israeli PM calls for dismantling of UN Palestinian refugee agency

Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu called on Sunday for the dismantling of theUNagency that aids millions of Palestinian refugees, accusingit of anti-Israeli incitement and saying he had conveyed hismessage to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Adnan Abu Hasna, a Gaza-based spokesman for the UnitedNations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said Netanyahuwaspursuing a "fantasy."

In public remarks to his cabinet at its weekly meeting, Netanyahu said UNRWA perpetuated, rather than solved, the Palestinian refugee problem and that anti-Israeli incitement wasrife in its institutions, which includes schools.

"It is time UNRWA be dismantled and merged with the UnitedNations High Commissioner for Refugees," Netanyahusaid.

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Referring to a meeting he held in Jerusalem on Wednesdaywith Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Netanyahusaid: "I told her it was time the United Nations re-examineUNRWA's existence."The United States, Israel's main ally, wasthe biggest donor toUNRWAlast year, pledging $368 million.

Netanyahumade his comments two days afterUNRWAsaid it haddiscovered part of a tunnel running under two of its schools ina refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

UNRWAwas established by the UNGeneral Assembly in 1949after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in the 1948 war that followed Israel'screation.

It says it currently aids five million registeredPalestinian refugees in the Middle East.

Chris Gunness, UNRWA's chief spokesman, said in an email toReuters that only the General Assembly, by a majority vote,could change the agency's mandate.

"In December 2016, UNRWA's mandate was extended for threeyears by the General Assembly by a large majority," he added.

UNRWA said it had protested to Hamas, the Islamist groupthat rules the enclave and which had used a network of cross-border tunnels to launch attacks inside Israel in a 2014war. UNRWA condemned the tunnel as a violation of neutrality.Hamas denied it was responsible for building it.

Abu Hasna, speaking in Hebrew on Israel Radio, cautionedthat if "UNRWA is gone" in the Gaza Strip, where its food, educational and health services are crucial, "two million peoplewill turn into IS [Islamic State]supporters.