Israeli authorities demolish UN compound in occupied East Jerusalem

Israeli demolition teams, accompanied by police, have begun tearing down the headquarters of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israel says it owns the land on which the compound stands and accuses Unrwa – the organisation that provides aid, education and healthcare to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza – of being infiltrated by Hamas.

The agency has denied the allegations and says its premises are protected under international conventions.

Israel’s action comes in the wake of a controversial law passed last year which banned Unrwa from operating in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem.

On Tuesday morning, the demolition crews made quick work of the compound that has stood on this site for decades.

The heavy machines ripped into the corrugated metal roofs and tore down walls, leaving piles of tangled debris in their wake.

Israel said no UN personnel were present on site when its actions began.

Unrwa has been under increasing pressure from the Israeli authorities.

The law, passed in January 2025, severing all state contact with the refugee agency, had already been making itself felt.

A health clinic in East Jerusalem was recently forced to close and electricity companies had begun the process of shutting off power to a number of Unrwa properties.

But there’s no doubt that this action was unexpected and unprecedented.

The head of Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, has posted on social media, calling it an “open and deliberate defiance of international law, including of the immunities and privileges of the United Nations”.

UN premises are protected under international treaty, making them immune from “search, requisition, expropriation and any other form of interference”.

But Israel says that those protections have been made null and void because of its allegation that Unrwa staff were involved in the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks.

A statement from Israel’s foreign ministry confirming that the demolition was taking place called the organisation a “greenhouse for terrorism”.

The UN admits that nine Unrwa staff may have been involved on 7 October but it says Israel has not provided any evidence for its claim that the agency’s been more widely infiltrated by Hamas.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, who was on site watching the demolition, described it as marking an “historic day”.

On the edge of compound from where journalists were filming was Aryeh King, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, also from the far-right of Israeli politics.

He told the BBC that Unrwa was a “Nazi” organisation and said he “didn’t care” what the UN had to say about international law.

Despite the demolition of its headquarters and the targeting of its other premises in East Jerusalem, Unrwa’s work in the West Bank and Gaza continues.

It employs thousands of staff and has, since its founding in 1949, been providing welfare and vocational training for Palestinian refugees and their descendants in the occupied territories.

But its activities have been seriously impacted by the war in Gaza.

The UN says more than 300 Unrwa staff have been killed in Israeli strikes and the organisation also faces an acute funding crisis, prompted in part by the Israeli allegations of complicity. Hundreds of staff have been laid off in recent weeks.

Israel, though, is doubling down, saying the “possession and evacuation” of other Unrwa buildings will follow.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has already threatened to take Israel to the International Court of Justice over its laws targeting Unrwa and its assets.

The demolition marks a significant widening of the rift.