'We'll enter with helicopters': Israeli official threatens Jerusalem UNRWA offices after seizure order

Israeli government orders Palestinian refugee agency to leave compound as part of plan to build settler houses

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Israeli authorities will cut off water and electricity supplies to offices used by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and seize the site by force if it does not follow a government order to leave the East Jerusalem premises, the Israeli deputy mayor of Jerusalem told The National.

“If they will not leave, as the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, I will call our water company and tell them to shut off the water, we will not supply them with electricity and we will not collect their rubbish,” Aryeh King said. “We will start to enter the property and try to enter with helicopters.”

An UNRWA official told The National that the agency was in contact with donor nations to urge Israel to reverse a decision to seize its offices in Jerusalem.

‘We are mobilising our donors and partners to go back to Israel and tell them that this in violation of UN privileges and the vote on UNRWA’s mandate," said Tamara Alrifai, director of external relations and communications at the agency.

UNRWA has called on donors to put pressure on Israel to reverse its order for the agency to leave its East Jerusalem offices. Lizzie Porter / The National

The Israel Land Authority and Housing Ministry last week ordered UNRWA to leave its premises in the Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem. Rights groups described the move as a continuation of the illegal annexation of the eastern part of the city and a campaign to disrupt the work of the UN.

Mr King said the plan was to turn the site into about 1,400 housing units in a “Jewish neighbourhood” in the area, without providing a timetable. “This land belongs to the Israeli government,” he claimed.

Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, a move it formalised in a 1980 law. The UN and rights groups have long considered the annexation to be a breach international law. In July this year, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was unlawful.

Mr King shared plans and sketches with The National that showed high-rise and low-rise apartment blocks arranged in a triangular formation around a central garden on what is currently the UNRWA site, which spans about 1,000 square metres. He is the founder of the Israel Land Fund, a prominent settler organisation.

The intention to build a settlement on the UNRWA site is in “direct contradiction” of international laws that state that an occupying power must not transfer its population into occupied territory, or force the current residents out of the area, said Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at rights organisation Ir Amim, which monitors settlement construction in East Jerusalem.

“The crux of the issue is that, after illegally annexing East Jerusalem, the Israeli government refuses to consider international law in regards to what it does there,” he told The National.

The UNRWA offices in Jerusalem, where the Israeli deputy mayor wants to build about 1,400 housing units for settlers. Lizzie Porter / The National

Another UNRWA official told The National that the agency did not receive formal notification of the seizure and only found out from Israeli media reports. “UNRWA has not received anything in writing about this matter from the Israeli authorities,” said Juliette Touma, UNRWA director of communications.

The agency is mandated by a UN vote to provide services for Palestinian refugees in Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. It has been operating since 1950, after the state of Israel was created and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes.

Israel has long accused UNRWA of anti-Semitism and stoking anti-Israel sentiment, accusations the organisation denies. Efforts by the government and activists to force UNRWA out of Israel and Palestine intensified after Israeli officials accused some employees of the agency of taking part in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, when 1,200 people were killed.

A UN inquiry found that nine employees “may have been involved” in the attacks, but said any evidence needed to be authenticated and corroborated. Several donor nations suspended funding to UNRWA over the allegations, although most later reinstated transfers. The October 7 attack led to the war on Gaza, which has killed more than 42,200 Palestinians, the enclave's health authorities said.

The UNRWA site in Jerusalem, surrounded by pine trees and broken wire fencing, was quiet when The National visited on Monday, with vehicles entering and exiting through the gates. In recent weeks, Israeli groups demanding UNRWA’s removal have held protests at the site.

Rafael Shaouli, 63, lives opposite the complex and said he agreed with the Israeli plan to seize the site. “UNRWA is not good and should leave this place,” he told The National, referring to the alleged involvement of some staff in the October 7 attacks.

The Israeli right is increasingly focused on UNRWA, making it more difficult for the agency to do its work, Mr Tatarsky said. “Targeting UNRWA is a specific campaign that is getting stronger and stronger by Israeli right-wing politicians," he added. "They have all kinds of reasons for doing it, but any organisation that supports Palestinians and somehow allows them to withstand Israeli policies becomes a target of the Israeli government.”

Israeli politicians are also examining two draft laws that would essentially make it impossible for UNRWA to work in Israel, and by extension the occupied Palestinian territories. A vote on the bills is expected to be held in the Knesset before the end of the month in the Knesset. If passed, the first would ban Israeli state authorities from having any contact with UNRWA, while the second would effectively stop the agency from operating in Israeli territory by revoking a 1967 exchange of notes providing the basis for its activities, the Times of Israel reported.

The US envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Washington was "following with deep concern the Israeli legislative proposal that could alter UNRWA's legal status". She said the move risked "hindering its ability to communicate with Israeli officials and removing privileges and immunities afforded to UN organisations and personnel around the globe", AFP reported.

If the bills are passed, they breach Israel’s obligations under the UN Charter and "deepen the violations in the ICJ opinion on the unlawful nature of the Israeli occupation", Ms Alrifai said.

“We are extremely concerned about the impact on education for children, people who receive health care in UNRWA clinics, and such bills are worded that they would hinder services in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”