The UNRWA chief warned on Thursday that if the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees were to collapse, it would deprive a generation of children of education, “sowing the seeds for more extremism”, AFP reports.

Pointing to a dire funding situation, Philippe Lazzarini warned of “the real risk of the agency collapsing and imploding”.

If that were to happen, he told AFP, “we would definitely sacrifice a generation of kids, who would be deprived from proper education”.

Lazzarini acknowledged earlier this week that if the only objective is to “bring trucks into Gaza” to address the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, others could step in.

But he stressed that UNRWA’s role was far broader.

“We are primarily providing government-like services,” he told AFP. “So I don’t see any NGO or UN agencies all of a sudden stepping into the provision of public-like services.”