{"id":266048,"date":"2026-08-26T20:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T20:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/266048\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T20:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T20:08:17","slug":"unrwa-chief-condemns-israeli-seizure-of-east-jerusalem-facility-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/266048\/","title":{"rendered":"UNRWA chief condemns Israeli seizure of East Jerusalem facility | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has condemned an Israeli seizure of its East Jerusalem training centre, calling the raid part of a campaign designed to weaken the agency and, in turn, eliminate Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n

In comments to Al Jazeera, acting Commissioner-General Christian Saunders on Wednesday accused Israel of violating UN premises, but insisted that \u201cmight doesn\u2019t win out\u201d in resolving the conflict and that the agency is \u201cnot going anywhere\u201d.<\/p>\n

Israeli forces raided and seized the Qalandiya Training Centre in the Kafr Aqab neighbourhood on Tuesday, expelling UNRWA employees and ordering them not to return.<\/p>\n

Five Palestinians were injured by Israeli gunfire near the site, according to the Jerusalem governorate.<\/p>\n

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir took part in the raid and said there was \u201cno place for the agency in Jerusalem and Israel\u201d. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the evacuation was lawful and carried out under legislation passed by Israel.<\/p>\n

The takeover of the facility deprives hundreds of young Palestinians of education and violates the protections afforded to UN premises under international law, Saunders said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree hundred and forty young people are not going to get the education, not going to get the training they need,\u201d he remarked. He lamented that the students \u2013 mostly from disadvantaged families \u2013 will now miss out on learning the skills to give them the \u201copportunity to lead a full and dignified life\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Qalandiya centre is part of UNRWA\u2019s wider network of services for Palestinian refugees. It serves about 16,000 refugees from Qalandiya refugee camp and other parts of the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

The raid followed the closure of the nearby Qalandiya checkpoint and a heavy Israeli military deployment in the area.<\/p>\n

Israeli authorities said the property was owned by the Jewish National Fund<\/a> and has now been allocated to the Jerusalem Municipality for a planned educational and community complex. They also cited Israeli legislation, passed in October 2024, restricting UNRWA\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n

UNRWA rejected the claims and maintained that the centre is a United Nations facility protected under international law.<\/p>\n

Wider campaign<\/p>\n

UNRWA has come under severe pressure amid Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza and abuse in the occupied West Bank, with several workers having been killed.<\/p>\n

Saunders said the wider campaign against UNRWA is intended to weaken the agency and cut its funding, and links these efforts to the broader question of Palestinian refugee rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf UNRWA is defunded and UNRWA is eliminated then they are hoping that the issue of the refugees, the Palestine refugees, will go away,\u201d Saunders said. \u201cWhich means that the right of return, reparations, and compensation would go away, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aid group chief pointed out that its mandate comes directly from the United Nations General Assembly and its role is to provide humanitarian and public services while the wider political dispute between Israel and Palestinians remains unresolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a humanitarian organisation; we\u2019re a development organisation. We are given our mandate by the United Nations General Assembly to provide critical services,\u201d Saunders said.<\/p>\n

UNRWA will continue doing so \u201cuntil the General Assembly decides otherwise, or there is a durable solution to the Palestine question,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n

However, Saunders also acknowledged the limits of the UN\u2019s ability to prevent further incursions without collective action from member states.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the United Nations has the power to say: \u2018You know, this is not going to continue to happen,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United Nations is the sum of its member states, and its member states need to have the collective determination to address this issue. And for over seven decades, this has not happened.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has condemned an Israeli seizure of its East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[37,497,49,42,8925,498,1614,30524],"class_list":["post-266048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-occupied-east-jerusalem","tag-palestine","tag-refugees","tag-unrwa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117163622732172168","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}