JERUSALEM — Israeli authorities raided the compound of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday, took down the UN flag, and raised Israel’s flag, UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X.
Lazzarini said Israeli police, accompanied by Jerusalem municipal officials, “forcibly” entered the UNRWA compound, bringing in “trucks and forklifts.”
“All communications were cut. Furniture, IT (Information Technology) equipment, and other property were seized,” he added.
Israeli police told CNN in a statement that the operation “was carried out by the Jerusalem Municipality as part of a debt-collection procedure.” Police were present “to secure the municipality’s personnel,” the statement said.
A spokesman for the Jerusalem Municipality told CNN that it was “a standard procedure against those who don’t pay property tax and ignore repeated reminders.”
“This follows a series of warnings and preliminary measures regarding an accumulated property tax debt of approximately 11 million shekels ($3.4 million), which has been unpaid for a long time,” the spokesperson added.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, pushed back on the claim of unpaid taxes during his daily press briefing on Monday. “It is not applicable under the general conventions that govern the relationship between the United Nations and member states,” he said.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the “unauthorized entry” by Israeli authorities. “This compound remains United Nations on premises and is inviolable and immune from any other form of interference,” Guterres said in a statement, citing Israel’s obligations under the UN Charter and other bodies of international law.
Israel has longstanding issues with UNRWA, accusing it of aiding Hamas and calling for it to be dismantled entirely, though the agency has repeatedly denied such claims.
Earlier on Monday, Shosh Bedrosian, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in response to a question about the raid that “UNRWA has proven its enormous failures, and it’s time for it to be dismantled.”
Israeli leaders have campaigned against UNRWA long before the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, criticizing the organization’s role in Gaza and elsewhere, as well as its definition of which Palestinians qualify for refugee status.
In late 2024, Israel’s parliament passed laws to ban UNRWA from operating in Israel and to prohibit Israeli officials from contact with the agency.
For millions of Palestinians, UNRWA functions as a parallel government. It educates half a million students, employs 3,000 medical professionals and helps feed nearly 2 million people. — CNN
