UNRWA Under Siege: Israel Tightens Grip On Palestinian Refugee Services

(MENAFN- Jordan Times) OCCUPIED JESRUALEM - Following a firm political decision to end the Palestinian refugee issue, Israel has liquidated the international institution that bears witness to the Palestinian historical rights in East Jerusalem.

In a pivotal step towards dismantling international Palestinian refugee protections, Israeli authorities have recently sparked another confrontation with the United Nations after seizing a UN facility in occupied East Jerusalem, promising to close it down permanently.

Accompanied by far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir Israeli forces have raided on August 25 the Qalandiya Training Centre, operated by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in occupied East Jerusalem and took control of the facility,raising the Israeli flag over the centre's buildings reflecting the determination to end the agency's humanitarian role in the region.

Ben-Gvir was filmed sitting behind a desk he said was used previously by the training centre director. "UNRWA is out," he said.

The Israeli government claims that UNRWA had become "riddled" with Hamas members, some of whom took part in the October 7 attacks.

UNRWA said that Israel has not supplied evidence to substantiate its allegations of widespread infiltration by Hamas.

Storming of the UNRWA facility, was justified by Israeli authorities under October 2024 legislation banning the UN agency, prompting sharp condemnation from the international world, which warned of systematic efforts to strip millions of Palestinians of essential services.

Ben-Gvir who took part in the raid said there was“no place” for UNRWA in Jerusalem or Israel.

In January, Israeli authorities demolished UNRWA's headquarters compound in Sheikh Jarrah, in occupied East Jerusalem.

However, the UN insists the site is still a UN premises, but Israel has already put forward plans to turn it into a military complex, including an army museum, a recruitment centre and an office for the defence minister.

The Qalandiya Training Centre has operated since 1952 and specializes in vocational training for young Palestinian refugees from camps across the West Bank.

Israel had“closed six UNRWA schools and two health centres and destroyed the agency's main headquarters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem”, UNRWA's West Bank and East Jerusalem director Roland Friedrich said.

“We receive 340 young people each year, ages 15 to 19, and train them as carpenters, auto mechanics and graphic designers, giving them the skills they need to succeed in the labour market,” Friedrich said.

More than 90 per cent of the Qalandiya centre graduates find jobs each year, he explained, adding that the facility provides free education to young people from difficult socioeconomic backgrounds.

The humanitarian situation in the West Bank has“sharply deteriorated since Oct. 7, 2023.”

“We have seen unemployment rise above 30 per cent across the West Bank, and in some refugee camps it has exceeded 50 per cent, because of Israeli movement restrictions and limited access to the labor market,” he added.

“We have also witnessed an increase in forced displacement, which is extremely dangerous”, he said.

In the northern West Bank, about 34,000 Palestinian refugees from the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps have been forcibly displaced by the Israeli army for more than one and a half years, and remain barred from returning to their homes while more than 50 per cent of homes in those camps have also been destroyed, he added, stressing that“the right of Palestinian refugees to return is guaranteed under UN General Assembly Resolution 194.”

The developments come amid continued Israeli pressure on UNRWA after the Knesset approved two laws in October 2024 restricting the agency's operations, including a ban on its activities inside Israel.

The laws took effect in early 2025.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) reaffirmed last October Israel's obligation to respect the inviolability of UN facilities, including UNRWA premises, and refrain from interfering with its property and assets.

Last December, despite pressure, the UN General Assembly renewed UNRWA's mandate for three years, allowing the agency to continue its work until June 2029.

On the other hand, amid new Israeli incursions in the occupied West Bank Six Palestinians were injured late August 29 when the Israeli army fired tear gas during a raid on the Al Faraa refugee camp south of Tubas in the northern occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces have intensified their operations across the West Bank refugee camps recently by a rare drone strike in Jenin that killed three people.

The military strike on August 28 targeted a vehicle in Jenin, which the Israeli military stated eliminated a Hamas operative and two accomplices.

Extended operations across northern camps ( such as Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams ) have left tens of thousands of residents displaced over prior months, with severe damage to roads, water networks, and buildings from previous ground and aerial incursions.

Ongoing localised raids, roadblocks, and curfews continue to impact daily movement, access to medical care and basic services.

Following the strike, defence minister Israel Katz announced that the Jenin refugee camp had been fully cleared of remaining residents and“ occupied '' or permanently garrisoned by the military to dismantle active militant infrastructure.

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