Israeli authorities raided a vacant compound of a United Nations agency in East Jerusalem on Monday, seizing property there and prompting accusations from the agency chief that Israel was violating its legal obligations as a U.N. member.
The operation by Jerusalem municipal officials and Israeli police targeted a site that has been controlled by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, known as UNRWA.
Israel last year banned the agency from operating in Israeli territory, as part of a campaign to dismantle the agency. Israel claims sovereignty over East Jerusalem, a claim disputed by the United Nations and most of the world.
Israel has accused UNRWA of allowing Hamas to infiltrate and influence it, and sought to severely restrict its activities after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that set off the war in Gaza. The United States has cut off aid to UNRWA, citing the Israeli complaints.
The agency has fired some workers in connection with the accusations of Hamas ties, but says that Israel has not provided evidence for all of its claims against its staff. It has accused Israel of harassment and of waging a disinformation campaign.
The raid on Monday, which Israeli authorities said was intended to collect municipal tax debts, escalates tensions between Israel and the United Nations in what is an already extremely fraught relationship.
Philippe Lazzarini, who heads UNRWA, said the compound was not in active use, but he said that it remains a United Nations location, exempt from search, seizure or taxation under international law. “To allow this represents a new challenge to international law, one that creates a dangerous precedent anywhere else the U.N. is present across the world,” he wrote on social media.
He accused Israel of violating the Convention on the Privileges & Immunities of the United Nations, which makes the organization’s premises “inviolable” and its property and assets “immune from legal process.”
The Israeli police and municipal officials “forcibly entered” the compound in East Jerusalem with trucks and forklifts, he said, cut off communications and seized furniture, tech equipment and other property. They also lowered the U.N. flag and replaced it with an Israeli one.
The Jerusalem municipal authorities said the operation was a routine debt collection action that had followed multiple warnings. In a statement, the municipality said that UNRWA had accumulated about $3.4 million dollars in property tax debt “that had not been paid for a long period of time,” and that calls for action had gone ignored by the agency before the operation.
“This is a substantial debt that needs to be collected after repeated requests, warnings and numerous opportunities to settle it, which were not responded to,” the municipality said.
According to a municipal official, the UNRWA compound lost its exemption from taxation when Israel banned the agency. The Israeli police declined to comment on the action, referring all questions to the city authorities.
Israel, which had held the western part of Jerusalem since its creation in 1948, seized control of East Jerusalem and the adjoining West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war. It formally annexed the eastern part of the city in 1980, and considers it Israeli territory. UNRWA and most nations of the world consider East Jerusalem to be Israeli-occupied territory.
Despite the friction with Israel and the United States, UNRWA has broad support from the international community. On Friday, the U.N. General Assembly voted to extend the agency’s mandate for three years, with a vote of 145 in favor and 10 opposing the extension, including Israel and the United States, and 18 nations abstaining.
The International Court of Justice in October told Israel to cooperate with U.N. relief efforts in Gaza and the West Bank, in a nonbinding advisory opinion centered on Israel’s duty to allow international aid agencies to operate in areas widely considered to be Palestinian territory occupied by Israel. The court, a branch of the United Nations, issued the ruling at the request of the General Assembly.
Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting from Tel Aviv.
Ephrat Livni is a Times reporter covering breaking news around the world. She is based in Washington.
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