Israeli Forces Shut Down Last Operating UNRWA Site in East Jerusalem, Sparking UN Outcry

Israeli security forces have raided and shuttered a United Nations vocational college in occupied East Jerusalem, eliminating the final remaining outpost of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the city. The operation on Tuesday targeted the Qalandia Training Centre and drew swift condemnation from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose spokesman stressed that all UN properties are inviolable under international law and shielded from any interference.

The raid had a distinctly political flavor. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir took part personally, bringing along a camera crew from the pro-government Channel 14 and posting footage of himself seated at the institute director's desk. "Thank God, on my shift there is no Unrwa," he declared in the video.

Responsibility for the closure was quickly claimed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office said he had ordered the compound's evacuation. In a statement, Netanyahu accused UNRWA of involvement in the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, adding that Israel would use "all means necessary" against an organization he said could not operate on its territory. The agency has forcefully rejected those allegations.

The Qalandia Training Centre, established in 1952, offered roughly 340 young Palestinians annually instruction in trades such as carpentry, plumbing and vehicle mechanics. Though situated within East Jerusalem, the campus lies between Qalandia and Kfar Aqab on the far side of Israel's separation barrier, making it reachable for students from refugee camps throughout the West Bank. Staff were expelled during the raid, and Israeli officials say equipment is now being cleared out as part of plans to open a school on part of the site.

UNRWA denounced what it called an unauthorized incursion, saying the entry of armed personnel into a UN facility without consent was unacceptable. Guterres voiced alarm that the move would strip young people of vocational education they depended on. The closure follows legislation enacted by Israel last year barring UNRWA from functioning anywhere it deems its territory — including East Jerusalem, captured from Jordan in 1967 and annexed in a step most countries do not recognize — and forbidding state bodies from any contact with the agency. Six UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem were also ordered shut last year, cutting off classroom instruction for some 800 children.

Israeli intelligence services allege that at least 19 UNRWA employees participated in the 2023 attack, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. A UN probe concluded that evidence pointed to possible involvement in nine cases, leading to those staff members' dismissals, but found insufficient or no support for the other claims. Israel further contends that a tenth of UNRWA's Gaza workforce has active ties to armed groups — an assertion the agency says has never been backed by information shared with it, while noting it consistently condemns violations of UN neutrality.

The Palestinian foreign ministry urged the international community to act immediately to safeguard the college, restore its personnel and stop Israel from entrenching the takeover. Founded after 1948 to assist displaced Palestinians, UNRWA today serves more than 900,000 registered refugees in the West Bank alone, and many Palestinians view the campaign against it as an effort to erase the refugee question — and their claim to return — from the conflict altogether.