Israeli authorities entered the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency’s East Jerusalem offices on Monday and raised Israel’s flag, in a raid they said was ordered over unpaid taxes but was condemned by the agency as a challenge to international law.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which has been accused of bias by Israel, has not used the building since the start of this year after Israel ordered it to vacate all its premises and cease its operations.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the raid.
“This compound remains United Nations premises and is inviolable and immune from any other form of interference,” Guterres said in a statement. “I urge Israel to immediately take all necessary steps to restore, preserve and uphold the inviolability of UNRWA premises and to refrain from taking any further action with regard to UNRWA premises.”
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X that the move by Israel could create “a dangerous precedent anywhere else the UN is present across the world.”
