Jerusalem
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Israeli authorities raided the premises of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday, taking down the UN flag and hoisting the Israeli flag, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote in X.
Lazzarini said Israeli police, accompanied by Jerusalem city officials, “forcibly” entered the UNRWA compound and brought in “trucks and forklifts.”
“All communications have been cut off. Furniture, IT (information technology) equipment and other property have been seized,” it added.
Israeli police told CNN in a statement that the operation was “carried out by the City of Jerusalem as part of a debt collection procedure.” Police were on scene “to secure municipal personnel,” the statement said.
A spokesperson for the city of Jerusalem told CNN that this is “standard procedure for people who do not pay their property taxes and ignore repeated reminders.”
“This follows a series of warnings and precautions regarding a long-unpaid accumulated property tax liability of approximately 11 million shekels ($3.4 million),” the spokesperson added.
UN Secretary-General Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric denied the claims of unpaid taxes at a regular press conference on Monday. “It does not apply to general treaties governing the relationship between the United Nations and its member states,” he said.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres accused Israeli authorities of “unauthorized entry”. Guterres said in a statement, citing Israel’s obligations under the United Nations Charter and other international law, that “this facility remains on United Nations property, inviolable and free from any form of interference.”
Israel has had longstanding problems with UNRWA, accusing it of supporting Hamas and calling for its complete disbandment, although UNRWA has repeatedly denied such claims.
Earlier on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Shosh Bedrossian said in response to a question about the attack that “UNRWA has proven its colossal failures and it is time to be dismantled.”
Israeli leaders campaigned against UNRWA long before Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, criticizing the organization’s role in places like Gaza and its definition of which Palestinians qualify for refugee status.
In late 2024, Israel’s parliament passed a law banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and prohibiting Israeli officials from contacting the agency.
For millions of Palestinians, UNRWA functions as a parallel government. It educates 500,000 students, employs 3,000 health professionals, and helps feed nearly 2 million people.
CNN’s Hira Humayun contributed to this report.
