Israel beginning operations to raze East Jerusalem UNRWA facility, Ben Gvir says

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announces the start of operations to dismantle a vocational training center run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in the East Jerusalem area of Kafr Aqab, near the Qalandiya refugee camp.

“Large forces of Israel Police are working together with the relevant authorities to realize the law and get UNRWA out of the area,” Ben Gvir says in a statement. “An organization whose workers were involved in terrorism, and which served as a front for Hamas time after time, has no right to exist for even another second, and has no place in Jerusalem and the State of Israel.”

Footage from Palestinian media shows Ben Gvir on the scene with Israeli forces at the UNRWA facility.

اقتحام وزير الأمن القومي الإسرائيلي، إيتمار بن غفير، لمعهد قلنديا التابع لوكالة "أونروا" في مخيم #قلنديا شمال القدس المحتلة.

للتفاصيل: https://t.co/EA1eijviRd pic.twitter.com/ctCCOn8xyj

— موقع عرب 48 (@arab48website) August 25, 2026

The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate says Israeli forces ordered UNRWA employees to exit the facility and not return.

Israel has long accused UNRWA of fomenting anti-Israel sentiment in its schools, and in the aftermath of the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, also accused it of collaborating with Hamas in Gaza. The UN agency denies the charges.

In late 2024, Israel passed legislation banning UNRWA from Israeli territory, including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after the Six Day War of June 1967.

Ben Gvir’s announcement comes after the Jerusalem municipality this month greenlit a plan to build a road and an “educational complex” over the 82-dunam area, which is officially owned by the Jewish National Fund, which the Zionist movement founded in 1901 to buy plots of land for a future Jewish state.

The plan, first published by the municipality in April, says the complex will include classrooms, as well as a mosque and health, welfare and culture centers for Kafr Aqab residents.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the JNF bought the plot of land in 1937. UNRWA says the land was given it by the Jordanian government in 1952 — when Jordan controlled East Jerusalem — to establish the vocational training center that has operated there ever since.

The center trains about 340 students a year and was already open for registration for the coming school year starting on September 1, according to UNRWA.

The UN body said earlier this month that it was aware of the municipal plan, and that carrying it out would violate protections to UN facilities under international law.

“Should the Israeli authorities proceed with the implementation of the plan, such action would raise serious concerns regarding Israel’s obligations under international law, including its obligations as a Member State of the United Nations,” UNRWA said.