JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police forcibly entered the compound of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem early Monday, escalating a campaign against an organization that has been banned from operating on Israeli territory.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, said in a statement that “sizeable numbers” of Israeli forces including police on motorcycles, trucks and forklifts entered the compound in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and cut communications to the compound.
“The unauthorized and forceful entry by Israeli security forces is an unacceptable violation of UNRWA’s privileges and immunities as a U.N. agency,” the agency said.
Photos taken by an Associated Press photographer show police cars on the street and an Israeli flag planted on the compound’s roof. Photos provided by UNRWA staff show a group of Israeli police officers inside the compound.
Police said in a statement they entered for a “debt-collection procedure” spearheaded by Jerusalem’s municipal government, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean
Israel Conducting Long-Running Campaign Against UNRWA
The raid was the latest action in Israel’s campaign against the agency, which provides aid and services to some 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
The agency was established to help the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. UNRWA supporters say Israel hopes to erase the Palestinian refugee issue by dismantling the agency. Israel says the refugees should be permanently resettled outside its borders.
For more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war that began Oct. 7, 2023, UNRWA was the main lifeline for Gaza’s population, which was largely reliant on aid because of humanitarian crisis unleashed by heavy Israeli bombardment and restrictions on the entry of goods.
Throughout the war, Israel has accused the agency of being infiltrated by Hamas, allegations the U.N. has denied. After months of mounting attacks from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies, Israel formally banned it from operating on its territory in January.
The U.S., formerly the largest donor to UNRWA