At Shu‘fat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, the tension does not stop at the sounds of raids or the closure of the military checkpoint that serves as the camp’s sole gateway to Jerusalem. Behind that gate—whose opening and closing are subject to the whims of the Israeli soldiers on duty—residents live with another reality: declining services and the absence of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), an organization that had served the camp since its establishment in 1965.

Israel’s latest operation targeting the camp has once again raised questions about the reality that its residents face: They are caught between “security” measures that increasingly constrain their daily lives and the decline or complete absence of basic services. Today, refugees are increasingly questioning where they can turn for support as UNRWA’s presence and services diminish.

What happened in the Shu‘fat camp during the latest operation? How did residents experience this period? And what does the absence of UNRWA services mean to them? Jerusalem Story investigated the ongoing issue, hoping to answer these questions by drawing on testimonies from inside the camp.

On the night of September 7, 2026, Israel launched a military operation that entailed the dispatch of military reinforcements accompanied by bulldozers, in addition to enforcement of a curfew and closure of all entrances, preventing residents from moving around.

The Israeli army claimed that the operation was aimed at thwarting the activities of Palestinian operatives and the possession and trafficking of weapons, stating that it would operate in the camp as it had operated in other refugee camps elsewhere in the occupied West Bank since early December 2024.1

The raid, which lasted approximately 24 hours through September 8, saw heavy military deployment across the camp’s neighborhoods and main streets. Soldiers raided and searched dozens of homes and shops, breaking down doors and damaging their contents. At least 100 Palestinians, including a woman, were arrested, most of whom were later released after field interrogations.2

During the large-scale raid, the army also destroyed and bulldozed water service lines in the town of ‘Anata, which is adjacent to Shu‘fat camp, confiscated three vehicles, and demolished a citizen’s home. The events interrupted schools and kindergartens and forced commercial shops to close, while obstructing the movement of ambulances and the transportation of people with chronic illnesses to health centers and hospitals.3

This reality has become recurrent, according to Hassan Alqam—an activist and resident of Shu‘fat camp, whose grandparents were displaced from the village of Beit Thul in 1948. Alqam revealed that camp residents now live in a state of constant anticipation, and that their sole concern is how to secure daily bread.4

He described the state of the camp’s residents as “exhausted,” pointing to the fear of an unknown fate that has crept into the hearts of refugees in the absence of UNRWA services.

“People’s daily concerns now revolve around the military checkpoint and the severe traffic crises it’s causing,” he said. “Most discussions on the camp’s WhatsApp groups have to do with the state of the checkpoint and the long hours residents spend waiting to cross it each day,” Alqam added.

Not only that. Many residents, Alqam stressed, avoid crossing the camp’s sole military checkpoint even when they have an urgent need, such as a medical appointment, because of the long waiting times that traffic congestion causes. “I am one of the residents who cram everything I need to do outside the camp into one day each week, just so I don’t have to go through the checkpoint more than that,” he said.

When the team asked him which service sector is most impacted, Alqam addressed the education crisis, which he described as “serious,” due to the closure of three UNRWA schools in the camp and their replacement with Israeli-run schools.

After the military operation ended, everyone chose to return to their work and normal routines. Protests about it were almost nonexistent, “because people are afraid of being thrown into prison, whose reputation has worsened during the recent war,” Alqam explained.

Everyone knows that Israel’s goal behind the raids in Shu‘fat is to drive people to leave voluntarily, according to Alqam. However, these people want nothing more than to live in Jerusalem, and they are determined to stay until the end.

Moreover, Jerusalem lawyer Medhat Diba, who lives in ‘Anata, described the recent situation in Shu‘fat as extremely bad, amid ongoing attempts to destabilize residents’ lives. He noted that people’s fears have doubled since the Israeli government announced a ban on UNRWA activities and services, which residents had long heavily relied on for education, health care, waste collection, and other services.5

“The forced suspension of services has significantly impacted low-income residents, the sick, and the elderly who have no health insurance and depended on the camp’s UNRWA clinic for treatment,” Diba said.

Diba also noted that in addition to UNRWA-run schools, other schools in the camp were closed because of the “fierce assault on educational institutions.” This left many students without educational frameworks, forcing parents to enroll them in the schools that the Israeli municipality opened inside UNRWA school buildings (see Education).

Amid the almost daily night raids in the camp, Diba confirmed that residents are subjected to systematic humiliation. During the military operation, he shared that several family members were ordered to stand side by side facing a wall, as one of them was selected and forced, at gunpoint, to spit on the other family members.

“This was repeated during the military operation in several homes in the camp; it is the kind of sadism championed by [National Security] Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in the current Israeli government,” Diba revealed.

Residents are now mostly concerned about the abundance of taxes weighing on them, which municipal crews impose as they raid the camp on an almost daily basis—despite the camp’s lack of services, including adequate lighting, properly equipped streets and pathways, or even squares or playgrounds for children.

Diba believes that the media does not know or see what is happening inside the camp. He thinks that the media does not grasp the scale of the assault and the harm caused to people’s livelihoods and privacy. The army and police intrude significantly on private property, and the message Israel wants to convey is the entrenchment of complete control and influence over Shu‘fat as part of the holy city that lies “under its sovereignty.”

Diba’s message to the world about the camp's conditions is to show what residents are dealing with: a second policy of displacement from their homes after being displaced from their villages and cities in 1948. He said refugees are being subjected to a fierce campaign aimed at erasing the identity of the camp and administratively annexing it to the Jerusalem municipality, to eliminate the refugee issue, and the right of return that UNRWA’s presence had at least guaranteed.

As residents describe their reality on the ground, UNRWA’s camp services that they depend on remain an essential part of the issue. Jerusalem Story spoke with Roland Friedrich, director of UNRWA Affairs in the West Bank, from his office (now forcibly relocated to Amman) to discuss this matter.

Friedrich spoke about the legal situation following the closure of UNRWA’s West Bank compound in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, the steps that UNRWA must take, and if there are any ongoing efforts at UNRWA’s New York office or at the International Court of Justice:

Regarding facilities, Friedrich explained that all UNRWA and United Nations (UN) premises and headquarters in the occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT) enjoy diplomatic immunity under the UN agreement and the general convention signed with Israel concerning the immunities and privileges of the UN. Since Israel is a member state, these laws are binding.

Friedrich also discussed the fact that the Kalandia Training Centre, UNRWA’s oldest vocational school, and UNRWA buildings in Sheikh Jarrah are Jordanian properties. He confirmed that the headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah were established under a lease agreement between UNRWA and the Jordanian government, and that the institute was also established as part of a joint project in 1952. “This legal status is clear; we have been here since the 1950s, and we have the right to use these lands, and millions of dollars have been invested in building and developing our premises,” he said. “In any case, there is coordination with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on all these issues, and our legal position remains the same: the State of Israel must facilitate the resumption of our work,” he added.

Thus, the UN Secretary-General strongly condemns the ongoing violations in East Jerusalem, including at Shu‘fat’s schools and the headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah.

In October 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a ruling regarding Israel’s duties and obligations to facilitate UN operations, including those of UNRWA, in the oPT. The ruling also addressed Israel’s obligation to respect the diplomatic immunities and privileges of the UN.

What about the hundreds of students whose UNRWA schools were summarily shut before year’s end in May? Jerusalem Story spoke with Friedrich about whether UNRWA is currently following up on the students’ situation, their whereabouts, and whether they are receiving an education.

“We have no statistics on the fate of students; there were 550 boys and girls in our Shu‘fat camp schools, and we’ve heard from parents about the negative impact of our schools’ closure on their children,” he said. Many families prefer schools near home, with good infrastructure, a safe environment, and high-quality education and critically, without requiring their children to traverse the checkpoint daily.

“According to our information, many families wanted to continue enrolling their children in UNRWA’s schools but unfortunately, the day came when these schools were closed,” he added. “We’ve received news that the agency’s school premises are now being used to run other schools, which constitutes a flagrant violation of the immunity of these premises under international law.”

Friedrich also discussed the health clinic in the camp and the fate of its patients and their medical records: “We received information that the clinic’s immunity had also been violated by some parties, including municipal employees,” he said. “Part of it was burned, and we have no ability to access it to this day. This is completely unacceptable.”

The camp clinic, together with the UNRWA clinic located in Jerusalem’s Old City, used to serve more than 30,000 registered patients. Friedrich explained:

It is worth noting that Israel also closed the Kalandia Training Centre that served more than 330 students from West Bank refugee camps on August 25, 2026 (see Israel Shutters the Last Vocational School in Jerusalem). With its closure, students have no other option left for vocational training in the 17 specializations that the institute had offered since before Israel’s founding. This is a major loss for the future of these students, who urgently need to enter the labor market and contribute to building society.

How does UNRWA view the dismantling of refugee camps? Friedrich revealed that they her and read a great deal about it in the news. “The conditions in the Tulkarm, Nur Shams, and Jenin camps are extremely difficult,” he said. “We are talking about more than 34,000 displaced people to date, which is the highest number of forcibly displaced people since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967,” he added. “The situation is extremely difficult in these three camps, which are 50 percent destroyed.”

Friedrich, who is currently based in Amman, Jordan, because Israel has not been granting entry visas to UNRWA’s foreign staff, also addressed the difficult humanitarian and psychological conditions that displaced Palestinians are experiencing with their loss of hope and livelihoods.

He discussed UNRWA’s main role:

Regardless of the difficulties of operating in the West Bank, Friedrich noted that UNRWA opened 90 schools at the start of the new academic year, with 48,000 students enrolled.

Although the international agency suffers from a massive financial deficit, it has the capacity to continue providing services, and staff resilience is high. “I am proud of them, of their performance, and daily commitment. Without my colleagues, we would not have been able to continue in this way,” he said.

UNRWA’s staff includes employees who hold Israeli permanent-resident IDs or work in Jerusalem. “Every employee at the agency is an employee of the United Nations as an institution, which means they all enjoy the same functional immunity as any international employee, regardless of where they live,” Friedrich said. “This functional immunity must be respected by all parties, whether the Palestinian Authority or the State of Israel.”

“We hope that our relations will return to normal, as they were before the Israeli laws targeting UNRWA came into effect,” Friedrich told Jerusalem Story. “This is a relationship between a UN body established by the General Assembly and a member state of this international organization.”

Meanwhile, the residents of Shu‘fat refugee camp are left in limbo, increasingly fearful of what the future holds for them.