JERUSALEM - The Israeli Foreign Ministry has officially notified the UN of its intention to ban UNRWA from operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. The law will come into effect within three months, ministry director general Jacob Blitshtein wrote.

Israel's decision to ban the agency, which provides support and services to Palestinian refugees, will cut off access to education for hundreds of thousands of children, leaving them vulnerable to "hopelessness, poverty and radicalisation", warned Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner general.

Senior officials from rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas are meeting in Cairo to discuss with their Egyptian hosts the possibility of managing the day-to-day affairs of postwar Gaza. The committee will be made up of 15 independent Palestinian figures who are not aligned to any particular movement, sources told The National.