UN Palestinian refugee agency says demolished HQ set on fire

The United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees says that its partially demolished headquarters in East Jerusalem was set on fire.

The agency, UNRWA, does not offer details on the cause of the incident at their premises, which Israeli authorities seized and began dismantling last week after banning the organization from operating in the country in 2025.

“After having been stormed and demolished by the Israeli authorities, the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem has now been set on fire,” the agency says in a statement.

It describes the blaze as part of an “ongoing attempt to dismantle the status of Palestine Refugees.”

The fire and rescue service said early Sunday that it responded to a call at the facility, where it worked to “extinguish the blaze and prevent it from spreading,” also without offering a cause.

The UN had slammed last week’s seizure and demolitions, and UNRWA insisted that its property remained protected by the privileges and immunities of the UN, a view it repeated on Sunday.

UNRWA was created specifically for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced during the creation of Israel in 1948, and provides refugee status registration and health and education services.

Israel alleges that more than 10 percent of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza have ties to terrorist factions and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror.

Israel had been extremely critical of UNRWA long before the Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, saying that its near uniqueness in the world — granting refugee status not just to the first generation of refugees but to their descendants — perpetuated the conflict and created a culture of dependence among Palestinians.