JERUSALEM — Israeli police forcibly entered the compound of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem early Monday, escalating a campaign against an organization that has been banned from operating on Israeli territory.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, said in a statement that “sizeable numbers” of Israeli forces, including police on motorcycles, trucks and forklifts, entered the compound in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and cut communications to the compound.
“The unauthorized and forceful entry by Israeli security forces is an unacceptable violation of UNRWA’s privileges and immunities as a U.N. agency,” the statement read.
Photos taken by an Associated Press photographer show police erecting an Israeli flag on top of the compound, and police cars on the street. Photos provided by UNRWA staff show a group of Israeli police officers inside the compound.
Police said in a statement they entered for a “debt-collection procedure” initiated by Jerusalem's municipal government, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel's long-running campaign against UNRWA
The raid was the latest in Israel's campaign against the agency, which provides aid and services to some 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
The agency was established to help the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding the creation of the Israeli state. UNRWA supporters say Israel hopes to erase the Palestinian refugee issue by dismantling the agency. Israel says the refugees should be permanently resettled outside its borders.
For more than a year since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, UNRWA was the main lifeline for Gaza's population that largely relied on aid following the humanitarian crisis unleashed by heavy Israeli bombardment and blockades on the entry of goods.
Restrictions on goods have since eased after a US-brokered ceasefire was reached on Oct. 10.
Throughout the war, Israel has accused the agency of being infiltrated by Hamas, allegations the U.N. has denied. After months of mounting attacks from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies, Israel formally banned it from operating on its territory in January.
The U.S., formerly the largest donor to UNRWA, halted funding to the agency in early 2024.
UNRWA receives assistance from other agencies
UNRWA has since struggled to continue its work in Gaza, with other U.N. agencies, including the World Food Program and UNICEF, stepping in to help compensate for a gap UNRWA says is unfillable.
“If you squeeze UNRWA out, what other agency can fill that void?” Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA’s director of external relations and communications, told the AP in Doha.
Alrifai said UNRWA has been excluded from the talks.
The agency shut down its Jerusalem compound in May after far-right protesters, including at least one member of Israeli Parliament, overran its gate in the presence of the police. Israel’s far-right has pushed to turn the compound into a settlement.
US officials meet Netanyahu
Netanyahu met with the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Mike Walz and other officials on Monday in a visit the Trump administration said was aimed at pushing forward the 20-point plan for Gaza, suggested in September by President Donald Trump, that includes the current ceasefire and its following stages.
In a statement, the U.S. mission to the U.N. said it would “discuss shared priorities for regional security and humanitarian aid."
With most of the hostage bodies returned to Israel by Palestinian militants, Arab and Western officials have said they expect an international governing body in the Gaza Strip to be announced in the coming weeks.
At the same time, Hamas has said it's ready to discuss “freezing or storing” its arsenal of weapons as part of its ceasefire with Israel, offering a possible formula to resolve one of the thorniest issues in the U.S.-brokered agreement.
Netanyahu and Trump are expected to meet in the coming weeks.
The developments are significant steps toward peace in a region that has been devastated by two years of war that has killed at least 70,360 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says that nearly half the dead have been women and children. The ministry is part of Gaza’s Hamas government and its numbers are considered reliable by the U.N. and other international bodies. The Health Ministry also says over 370 Palestinians have been killed in continued Israeli strikes since the ceasefire took effect.
The war started when Hamas-led militants attacked Southern Israel, leaving around 1,200 people dead and abducting 251 others.
Violence in the West Bank
Israel’s military shot and killed one man Sunday night in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Officials said he was throwing rocks at soldiers with two other people, one of whom was arrested. while Palestinian health officials said they shot and wounded the other man. The military said no soldiers were injured.
Palestinian authorities identified the man killed as a 19-year-old man from the northern city of Qalqilya.
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Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Doha, Qatar, contributed to this report.