“We see a growing consensus emerging in the international community to tell the Israelis that the ceasefire is needed and I also see a growing consensus, I heard in the U.S., I heard from the European Union, not to mention of course the Muslim world, to tell clearly to Israelis that any ground invasion of Rafah could mean a humanitarian disaster,” Guterres told a press conference.

During a tour of a centre in Jordan’s Wihdat camp where the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA provides health and education services, the top U.N. official said that the agency was a lifeline of hope and dignity for millions of refugees across the region.

“We must strive to keep the one-of-a-kind services that UNRWA provides flowing because that keeps hope flowing. In a darkening world, UNRWA is the one ray of light for millions of people,” Guterres said.

Jordan, which lies at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict, hosts 2.4 million Palestinian refugees, the largest number of such refugees among Israel’s neighbours. Many of its citizens are of Palestinian origin.

UNRWA has been in crisis since Israel accused a dozen of its staff of involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks against Israel.

The allegations prompted UNRWA’s biggest donor, the United States, and some others to pause funding, putting the agency’s future in doubt. However, some other countries have since restored funding

“UNRWA is profoundly contributing in ways that can’t be measured on a graph — advancing social cohesion, promoting stability, building peace. Imagine if all of this was taken away,” Guterres said.

The results of an independent internal U.N. investigation that was launched would help strengthen and improve UNRWA, the top U.N. official said.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Tala Ramadan, Nadine Awadalla and Clauda Tanios; Editing by Michael Georgy, Toby Chopra, William Maclean)