By Pesha Magid and Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Israeli authorities entered the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency’s East Jerusalem offices on Monday and raised Israel’s flag, in a raid they said was ordered over unpaid taxes but was condemned by the agency as a challenge to international law.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has been accused of bias by Israel, has not used the building since the start of this year after Israel ordered it to vacate all its premises and cease its operations.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the raid.
“This compound remains United Nations premises and is inviolable and immune from any other form of interference,” Guterres said in a statement. “I urge Israel to immediately take all necessary steps to restore, preserve and uphold the inviolability of UNRWA premises and to refrain from taking any further action with regard to UNRWA premises.”
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X that the move by Israel could create “a dangerous precedent anywhere else the UN is present across the world.”
RAID ORDERED OVER ‘SUBSTANTIAL DEBT’
The Jerusalem municipality said tax collectors had entered the UNRWA compound over unpaid property taxes of 11 million shekels ($3.4 million) after multiple warnings were issued and all necessary procedures were followed.
“This is a substantial debt that required collection after repeated requests, warnings and numerous opportunities given to settle it, which were not answered,” it told Reuters.
UNRWA spokesperson Jonathan Fowler said the East Jerusalem compound remained UN premises despite the Israeli ban on its operations and that the agency had no debts to the municipality.
The U.N. had contacted Israeli authorities several times to remind them of their obligations under a U.N. convention to which Israel is a signatory, he said.
The Israeli prime minister’s office and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the raid.
Lazzarini said police motorcycles and trucks and forklifts were brought in and communications were cut. IT equipment, furniture and other property had been seized, he said.
The UN General Assembly renewed UNRWA’s mandate, first established in 1949, for another three years on Friday. Fowler declined to speculate on the timing of the raid.
He said Israel had been conducting a “sustained disinformation campaign” against UNRWA, whose responsibilities it wants taken over by other UN bodies.
Palestinians view UNRWA’s existence as enmeshed with the preservation of their rights as refugees, especially their hope of returning to homes from which they or their ancestors fled or were expelled in the war over Israel’s creation in 1948.
ISRAELI CRITICISM
Israel has alleged that some UNRWA staff were members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and took part in the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that killed about 1,200 Israelis and led to Israel’s war against Hamas, in which Gaza authorities say more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed.
UNRWA has fired several staff members but said Israel had not provided evidence for all the allegations against its staff.
Israel’s parliament passed a law in October 2024 banning the agency from operating in the country and prohibiting officials from having contact with the agency.
UNRWA operates in East Jerusalem, which the UN considers territory occupied by Israel. Israel considers all Jerusalem to be part of the country.
Israel formally annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, after capturing it in the 1967 Middle East war. The UN and most countries consider East Jerusalem to be occupied by Israel.
UNRWA also operates in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere in the Middle East, providing schooling, healthcare, social services and shelter to millions of Palestinians.
($1 = 3.2143 shekels)
(Reporting by Pesha Magid and Steven Scheer in Jerusalem, Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols; Writing by Alexander Cornwell, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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