Israel storms UNRWA headquarters in Palestine (Source: X)
Jerusalem: Israeli crews bulldozed a United Nations headquarters in east Jerusalem on Tuesday, January 20, as Israel’s government tightens restrictions on humanitarian groups that provide aid to Palestinians.
UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said on X 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.
Israel has long decried UNRWA for what it said is pro-Palestinian leanings and accused the group of ties to Hamas – which the UN agency has ardently denied.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the demolition was following through on a new law that banned the organisation, accusing it of ties to militant groups and Hamas.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a statement that he had accompanied crews to the headquarters and called it a “historic day.”
Israeli forces also fired tear gas at Palestinian trade school in East Jerusalem Tuesday, marking their second targeting of a UN facility.
Roland Friedrich, the group’s West Bank director, said Israeli forces had arrived at a vocational school for young Palestinians in Qalandia, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. More than 300 young refugees receive job training in technology and welding.
The raids are the latest in Israel’s long-running campaign against UNRWA, which it has banned from Israeli territory and accuses of being infiltrated by militants.
Hours before the UN agency was demolished in Palestine, UNRWA on Monday, January 19, warned that disease risks in the Gaza
Strip have reached unprecedented levels as children keep missing required vaccinations, with the harsh winter conditions resulting in the collapse of the health system, Andolu reported.“Amid more than two years of war in Gaza, children have repeatedly missed out on the vaccines they need to stay safe,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.
He said the severe conditions, adding to the cold temperatures and rainfall, are increasing the health risks in the enclave.
“These conditions come on top of already record-high disease risks caused by poor water and sanitation services, overcrowded shelters, and the collapse of the medical system,” Lazzarini added.
He further asserted that the Israeli action on the UNRWA headquarters was a “new level of open and deliberate defiance of international law by the State of Israel.”
“A lost moral compass opens a barbaric new era: after Israeli officials compete to take credit for the storming & destruction of a United Nation compound in occupied East Jerusalem, others call for the annihilation of an entire community of UNRWA staff,” the Commissioner said in this statement.
This post was last modified on January 20, 2026 8:35 pm