The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinians reiterated on Tuesday his belief that defunding and dismantling his agency would be “shortsighted.”

Phillip Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, has issued repeated warnings about the impacts of reducing its funding would have on Palestinians during the war, though many foreign governments, the United States included, have paused their funding due to allegations a dozen employees participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel.