Israeli forces seized control of an UNRWA training centre in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday, extending their campaign against the Palestinian refugee agency.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the raid in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab, which Israel considers part of its annexed territory.
An Israeli flag was raised over the UNRWA compound after four armoured vehicles and 50 security personnel entered the premises, according to the agency. Palestinian official media said about 40 people were detained and questioned before Israeli forces began demolishing part of the site.
The Israeli parliament passed a law in 2024 banning UNRWA's operations, after disputed claims that some of its employees were involved in Hamas's October 7 attack in 2023. Established in 1949, the agency has a major role in providing education and aid to Palestinians.
Israel demolished UNRWA's headquarters in East Jerusalem in January and has since approved plans for an army museum and recruitment office on the site. Israeli forces have previously entered the training centre in Kafr Aqab and disrupted classes, according to UNRWA.
“The State of Israel will not allow an organisation whose employees were complicit in terrorism and the October 7 massacre to operate within its territory, and will act against it by all means at its disposal,” Mr Netanyahu said.
Condemning Tuesday's developments, UNRWA said the incursion was “deeply concerning”. It said the centre was its oldest vocational school and offered free education to hundreds of Palestinian refugees a year.
“The entry of armed security forces into a United Nations facility, without the authorisation or consent of the United Nations, is unacceptable,” it said. Israel said it was beginning work on new educational facilities in the area.
Elsewhere in Palestinian territory, an Israeli MP took a sledgehammer to a monument in Madama, in the occupied West Bank, which he said commemorated “murderers of dozens of Jews”.
The stunt by Zvi Sukkot, a party colleague of the far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, went too far for Mr Netanyahu, who said security in the occupied West Bank was a matter for the Israeli military.
“Taking the law into one's own hands, particularly by public figures, is unacceptable and hinders the [Israeli army] from focusing on its missions of combating terror and incitement,” he said.
Violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has surged during the October 7 attacks. Israeli settlers have torched and vandalised villages, sometimes resulting in deadly clashes and rarely drawing any action by Israeli authorities.
Israeli left-wing activists confronted a group of settlers near the village of Jannatah near Bethlehem on Tuesday. Three AFP journalists were injured during a scuffle, the news agency said.
