Today, Monday, settlers stormed the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem.

Local sources reported that a group of settlers stormed the UNRWA headquarters and raised Israeli flags and provocative banners.

Last Thursday, two Israeli Knesset laws targeting the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Palestinian territories came into effect, meaning that tens of thousands of refugees will be deprived of services including education and health care.

The first law prohibits UNRWA activity within “areas under Israeli sovereignty,” including the operation of representative offices and the provision of services, while the other law prohibits any contact with the agency.

For the occupation government, the term “Israeli sovereign areas” in the first law relates to occupied East Jerusalem, where the temporary headquarters of UNRWA is located, specifically in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which has been subject in recent months to a wave of terrorist acts and exclusionary decisions.

In May 2024, the agency's management was forced to close the headquarters under the pressure of attacks by settlers, which reached the point of setting fire to its buildings twice within one week.

On October 10, 2024, the Israel Land Authority announced the seizure of the land on which the UNRWA headquarters was located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and the transformation of the site into a settlement outpost containing 1,440 housing units.

The occupation also targeted the Qalandia Training College, with the “Israel Land Authority” issuing a decision on January 14, 2024, demanding that “UNRWA” evacuate it and pay its occupancy fees retroactively in the amount of 17 million shekels, under the pretext of constructing and using buildings without a permit.

UNRWA provides services to more than 110,000 refugees in Jerusalem. The UN agency has two refugee camps: Shuafat Camp and Qalandia Camp. It runs institutions there such as the Indian Corner Clinic at the entrance to Bab al-Sahira, and schools for boys and girls in Jerusalem, Sur Baher, and the two aforementioned camps.