UNRWA

Jan. 20 (UPI) — The Israeli government began demolishing the East Jerusalem building that houses the United Nations’ agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees Tuesday, a move the international organization called “an unprecedented attack.”

The BBC reported that demolition teams used heavy machinery to rip through the roof and tear down walls of the headquarters of the UNRWA, formally known as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini issued a statement calling the demolition “a new level of open and deliberate defiance of international law.”

“This constitutes an unprecedented attack against a United Nations agency and its premises.”

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited the site during the demolition and said it was “a very important day for the governance of Jerusalem,” Sky News reported. He called workers for the UNRWA “supporters of terror” and said the organization was “infested” with Hamas members.

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed laws in October 2024 banning the agency from operating in the country. The government accused the UNRWA of being infiltrated by members of Hamas and participating in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed hundreds of people. The ban went into effect in January 2025.

The UNRWA, which has 30,000 workers in the region, denied the accusation, saying it fired nine employees after uncovering evidence they were involved in the attack that ignited the war.

The International Court of Justice in October ruled that Israel must allow the UNRWA to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza. The opinion from the United Nations’ highest court is non-binding but has a moral and diplomatic weight.

The UNRWA was founded in 1949 to provide relief to Palestinian refugees and began working out of its East Jerusalem headquarters shortly after. It is situated within occupied territory, having been seized by Israel in 1967.

Israeli officials took control of the building late last year, removing equipment and raising an Israeli flag. The government said it can now demolish the building because it belongs to Israel and is vacant.

An unnamed U.N. official told Sky News that the justification was “absolute nonsense.”

“They can say what they like, but it doesn’t make it real.”

The destruction comes as Israel clamps down on NGOs providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel has begun bulldozing the headquarters of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in occupied East Jerusalem as the far-right government clamps down heavily on humanitarian groups that provide desperately needed aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

UNRWA said on X on Tuesday that Israeli forces had confiscated staff devices and forced them out of their headquarters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.

“This is an unprecedented attack not only against UNRWA and its premises. It constitutes a serious violation of international law and the privileges and immunities of the United Nations,” it said.

Local sources reported that an Israeli army group, accompanied by bulldozers, stormed the agency’s compound after sealing off the surrounding streets and intensifying its military presence in the area, and proceeded to demolish structures inside the compound, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Israel has repeatedly attacked UNRWA for what it terms pro-Palestinian leanings and accused the body of ties to Hamas, without providing evidence, which the UN agency has vehemently denied.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the demolition was following through on a new law that banned the organisation.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a statement that he had accompanied crews to the headquarters and called it a “historic day”.

Israel has faced global condemnation after a ban on dozens of international aid organisations working to provide life-saving assistance to Palestinians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip came into effect weeks ago.

Israel has revoked the operating licences of 37 aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, for failing to comply with new government regulations.

The new rules require international NGOs working in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to provide detailed information on staff members, as well as their funding and operations.

Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he could take his country to the International Court of Justice if it does not repeal laws targeting UNRWA and return its seized assets and property.

In a January 8 letter to Netanyahu, Guterres said the UN cannot remain indifferent to “actions taken by Israel, which are in direct contravention of the obligations of Israel under international law. They must be reversed without delay.”

Israel’s parliament passed a law in October 2024 banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and prohibiting Israeli officials from having contact with the agency. It amended the law last month to ban electricity or water supply to UNRWA facilities.

Israeli authorities also seized UNRWA’s occupied East Jerusalem offices last month. The UN considers East Jerusalem occupied by Israel, while Israel considers all of Jerusalem part of the country.

In October 2024, Israel passed a law banning the agency for Palestinian refugees in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he could take his country to the International Court of Justice if it does not repeal laws targeting the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) and return its seized assets and property.

In a January 8 letter to Netanyahu, Guterres said the UN cannot remain indifferent to “actions taken by Israel, which are in direct contravention of the obligations of Israel under international law. They must be reversed without delay.”

Israel’s parliament passed a law in October 2024 banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and prohibiting Israeli officials from having contact with the agency. It then amended the law last month to ban electricity or water to UNRWA facilities.

Israeli authorities also seized UNRWA’s occupied East Jerusalem offices last month. The UN considers East Jerusalem occupied by Israel. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be part of the country.

Guterres said that UNRWA is “an integral part of the United Nations”, and highlighted that “Israel remains under an obligation to accord UNRWA and its personnel the privileges and immunities specified in the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN”.

The convention states that “the premises of the United Nations shall be inviolable”.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, dismissed Guterres’s letter to Netanyahu.

“We are not fazed by the Secretary-General’s threats,” Danon said in a post on X on Tuesday.

“Instead of dealing with the undeniable involvement of UNRWA personnel in terrorism, the Secretary-General chooses to threaten Israel. This is not defending international law, this is defending an organization marred by terrorism,” he added.

Israel has long sought the dissolution of UNRWA, which was created by the UN General Assembly in 1949 following the war surrounding the founding of Israel. It has since provided aid, health and education to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Israel has alleged that a dozen of the agency’s employees were involved in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, in which 1,139 people were killed, and about 240 were taken into Gaza as captives.

In response to the attack, Israel launched a devastating genocidal war against the Palestinian people of Gaza, killing more than 71,400, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

The UN has said that nine UNRWA staff who may have been involved in the Hamas-led attack on Israel have been fired. A Hamas commander in Lebanon, killed in September by Israel, was also found to have had a UNRWA job.

The UN has also promised to investigate all accusations made against UNRWA, and has repeatedly asked Israel for evidence, which it says has not been provided.

According to a January 5 UN report, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 382 UNRWA employees in the enclave, which is the highest number of UN casualties since the world body was founded in 1945. Some have been killed in Israel’s deliberate, repeated attacks on UNRWA hospitals and schools, which shelter more than one million displaced Palestinians in Gaza.

Top UN officials and the UN Security Council have described UNRWA as the backbone of the aid response in Gaza, where Israel’s war has unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.

In October 2025, the ICJ reiterated Israel’s obligation to ensure full respect for the privileges and immunities accorded to the UN, including UNRWA and its personnel, and said Israel should ensure the basic needs of the civilian population in Gaza are met.

The ICJ opinion was requested by the 193-member UN General Assembly.

Advisory opinions of the ICJ, also known as the World Court, carry legal and political weight, but they are not binding, and the court has no enforcement power.

Israel is revoking the licenses of 37 international organisations, forcing them to stop operations in Gaza. Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud explains how the new restrictions will worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis.