Dismantling the UN agency for Palestinian refugees would be a disaster, its chief said Tuesday, as the UNRWA came under pressure after Israel said it had found a Hamas tunnel under its Gaza headquarters.

Instead, "maybe after this cataclysm which has hit the region in Gaza, it might be time now to genuinely find a political solution", Philippe Lazzarini told reporters at the UN in Geneva, calling for an independent probes into both the Hamas tunnels and strikes on UN installations in the Palestinian territory.