Police have raised the Israeli flag over the global organization’s office in East Jerusalem
The United Nations has condemned Israel’s raid on the headquarters of its agency for Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem.
As reported by The Times of Israel, on Monday, police and tax officials entered the UNRWA office as part of what they described as an operation to seize assets due to unpaid municipal property taxes. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini stated that officials seized “furniture, IT equipment, and other property.”
During the raid, the police removed the UN flag and hoisted the Israeli flag over the compound.
“Yesterday’s storming of UNRWA’s East Jerusalem compound by Israeli police and taking control – including replacing the UN flag with the Israeli one – sets a dangerous precedent,” Lazzarini wrote on X on Tuesday. “This should serve as a wake – up call. What happens to UNRWA today could happen to any other international organization or diplomatic mission around the world tomorrow,” he added.
Watch: Israeli flag flies on roof of UNRWA headquarters in Jerusalem headquarters in Jerusalem, which have been inactive since the organization was banned in Israel, had an Israeli flag hoisted atop the building.
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UN Secretary – General Antonio Guterres condemned the operation, stating that UN offices were “inviolable and immune from any other form of interference.”
In October 2024, Israel banned UNRWA activities, accusing the agency of secretly assisting and providing cover for Hamas – an allegation that the UN denies.
Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Arieh King defended the raid, arguing that UNRWA was not permitted to operate in East Jerusalem, which the UN regards as an occupied Palestinian territory. “If it’s against the law, the law must be enforced,” King told the Press Service of Israel. He also said that “people should remember that UNRWA was involved in the terror attack and massacres of October 7,” referring to the Hamas assault in 2023 that sparked the war in Gaza.
Although the UN rejects Israel’s broader claim that the agency was “infiltrated by Hamas,” its own investigation in 2024 concluded that at least nine UNRWA staffers might have been involved in the October 7 attack.