Ben-Gvir leads Israeli forces to demolish UNRWA buildingsFar-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir led Israeli forces on Tuesday to demolish structures inside the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in occupied East Jerusalem.
According to witnesses, Israeli forces, accompanied by at least one bulldozer, moved into the compound in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and demolished mobile and permanent structures on the site.
Israeli forces also raised the Israeli flag over the compound, replacing the UN flag, they added.
“[This is] a historic day, a holiday, a very important day for the governance of Jerusalem,” Ben-Gvir wrote on the US social media company X.
“Today these supporters of terror are being driven out of here with everything they have built here.”
Aryeh King, an Israeli deputy mayor of Jerusalem, called the UN refugee agency “Nazi.”
“I promised that we would kick the Nazi enemy out of Jerusalem,” he said on X. “Now it's happening: UNRWA is being kicked out of Jerusalem!”
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini denounced the Israeli demolition as an “unprecedented attack” on the UN agency and its premises.
“A new level of open & deliberate defiance of international law, including of the privileges & immunities of the United Nations, by the State of Israel,” Lazzarini said in a post on X.
“Like all UN Member States & countries committed to the international rule-based order, Israel is obliged to protect & respect the inviolability of UN premises.”
Last month, the Israeli Knesset passed a law to cut electricity and water supplies to the UNRWA premises in East Jerusalem.
Israel has previously taken similar steps against the UNRWA. In 2024, the Knesset passed legislation banning the UN agency’s activities in Israel, citing allegations that some UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 events, claims the agency has denied. The UN has said UNRWA adheres to strict neutrality standards.
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