On January 20, 2026, Israeli bulldozers plowed through the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and tore down its compound. Now, all that’s left of the rubble is an Israeli flag that Israeli authorities raised at the site.1

Accompanied by Israeli police, officials from the Israel Land Authority (ILA), the government agency responsible for managing state lands, carried out the demolition as Israeli lawmakers gleefully watched the demolition occur.2

During the demolition, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir called the day “historic . . . for sovereignty in Jerusalem,” while Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Arieh King proclaimed, “God willing, we will expel, kill, eliminate, and destroy all UNRWA personnel” (see What Does the Israel Land Fund Do for Jews? Director Arieh King Explains).3

The ILA is preparing to build 1,440 residential units (for Jews) atop the razed UNRWA compound. The agency’s plan was initially published on its website in October 2024.4 According to Haaretz, the ILA confirmed that it is advancing the housing plan.5

The demolition occurred only one week after Israeli forces raided UNRWA’s al-Zawiya health center in Jerusalem’s Old City and ordered it to close for 30 days (see UNRWA at Risk of Withering Away in East Jerusalem as Israeli Legislation Severs It from Basic Services). The health center serves approximately 30,000 Palestinian refugees.6 “For most of them, it’s their only possibility of having access to primary healthcare,” Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA’s spokesperson, said.7 “So, there’s a right to health involved in this.”

According to the Times of Israel, Israeli police defended the closure, accusing the sole UN agency dedicated to Palestinian refugees of violating the law, but failing to clarify which law UNRWA had actually breached.8

The recent spate of developments comes just after Israel’s parliament passed an amendment to the state’s “Law for Stopping the Activity of UNRWA on December 29, 2025.”9 The amendment prevents Israeli companies from providing electricity, water, and financial services to UNRWA facilities, allows Israel to expropriate the agency’s properties in East Jerusalem, and ends diplomatic immunity for the agency.10 According to UNRWA, electricity and water services are expected to be cut off by February 2026.11

“We’re going to relocate health services to Area B or Area C so that at least people can still get access to health care,” Roland Friedrich, UNRWA’s West Bank director, told Jerusalem Story, referring to the Oslo-era regional divisions of the occupied West Bank.12 “Because we can’t continue to operate a health center without water and electricity.”

Israel passed legislation banning UNRWA in October 2024, following a campaign led by Deputy Mayor King claiming the agency is a terrorist organization and affiliated with Hamas.13

The bills, which came into effect on January 30, 2025, prohibit UNRWA from working in the areas Israel considers itself sovereign over and ban contact between the agency and Israel. The legislation forced UNRWA to evacuate its East Jerusalem headquarters in 2025 over fears surrounding employees’ safety as anti-UNRWA activists continuously harassed staff outside the headquarters and even set fire to the compound (see Despite Israel’s Ban, UNRWA Hangs on in East Jerusalem). Local staff relocated to offices in the West Bank, and international staff moved to Amman after Israel refused to renew their visas.

While Israel has long sought to dismantle UNRWA’s operations, the effort gained renewed momentum following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Sometime later Israel accused 12 UNRWA employees—without evidence—of being involved in the attack.14 These allegations were repeated in Israel’s defense of its demolition of the UNRWA compound.

“The State of Israel owns the Jerusalem compound in which the Israel Land Authority is operating today,” the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.15 “The compound does not enjoy any immunity and the seizure of this compound by Israeli authorities was carried out in accordance with both Israeli and international law. [The] move does not constitute a new policy, but rather the implementation of existing Israeli legislation concerning UNRWA.”

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, disputed the claim of Israeli ownership. “The Israeli government’s claims are false & illegal. There has never been a transfer of property,” Lazzarini said in a statement.16 “UNRWA has leased the land from the Government of Jordan since 1952. It is now being seized in blatant breach of international law.”

As part of its lease with Jordan, UNRWA pays a symbolic annual rental fee of 2,500 Jordanian dinars (approximately $3,525) to Jordan, which is deposited into an escrow account.

Israel considers East Jerusalem, an area it occupied in 1967 and subsequently illegally annexed, as its sovereign territory. Yet as Israel intensifies its attacks against UNRWA in Jerusalem, the organization is concerned that its West Bank UNRWA facilities also aren’t safe from Israel’s brutal crackdown.

“Legal experts say the law cannot be applied in the West Bank, because it’s not the sovereign State of Israel. However, in the end, you don’t know. The atmosphere is extremely strange, and anything can happen these days,” Friedrich said.

Of particular concern in the law’s new amendment is the provision to end UNRWA’s diplomatic immunity. “It is a clear violation of Israel’s obligations, but they also have a very practical impact,” Friedrich said during a January 6, 2026, UNRWA press conference at its vocational school in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Kufr ‘Aqab. “Our staff in East Jerusalem might be exposed to legal proceedings or other forms of threats and attacks.”17

Diplomatic immunity means that all UN agencies around the world are immune from raids, confiscation, and taxation, and staff are immune from arrest by the host country, Friedrich explained. Diplomatic immunity is outlined in the UN Charter, and since Israel is a UN-member state, it must abide by these obligations. This means that Israel is in direct violation of its UN member state responsibilities and international law.

“A government saying that UN staff are no longer enjoying privileged immunities is removing the protection that that very government under international law is required to extend to UN agencies,”18 Friedrich added during the press conference. “So, of course, [there’s] a lot of fear among staff members about possible legal repercussions.”

Fowler emphasized that Israel’s actions against UNRWA don’t just threaten the organization but pose a greater danger on the world stage.

“It goes beyond even UNRWA,” Fowler said.19 This is something which potentially has global implications because of this pattern of disregard for international law.” Already, Israel revoked the licenses of 37 NGOs providing dire humanitarian assistance in Gaza.20 And in 2021, Israel designated six Palestinian human rights groups as terrorist entities.21

“What UNRWA is facing now when it comes to its operations in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and Kalandia Training Centre is unfortunately reflective of a broader trend of shrinking humanitarian space in the occupied West Bank, in occupied East Jerusalem, and of course, in the Gaza Strip,” Friedrich said during the media briefing.

Following the demolition of UNRWA, Adalah–The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel filed a request to Israel’s Supreme Court for an interim injunction, a court order to immediately stop the implementation of Israel’s anti-UNRWA legislation.22 Adalah filed a petition to the Supreme Court on behalf of Palestinian refugees in January 2025, demanding the cancellation of the legislation. A hearing on the petition is scheduled for February 2, 2026.23

“The aim is . . . to stop the operation of UNRWA . . . to stop all the services,” Suhad Bishara, Adalah’s legal director, said of Israel’s anti-UNRWA bills and the recent amendment. Halting UNRWA’s services means Palestinian refugees will lose their lifeline to education and health care. According to Friedrich, the two UNRWA health centers in East Jerusalem—one of which was already shuttered—serve 70,000 people.

“People who cannot afford medication on the Israeli health system, people who have no access to the Israeli health system or Israeli health insurance. People who must take multiple medications a day that they get free of charge from us who might not be able to access those services anymore,” Friedrich said during the press briefing.

In May 2025, Israel shut down six UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem, which served about 800 students (see Palestinian Students Face Uncertainty as Israel Orders Closure of Six UNRWA Schools). Friedrich said that while a portion of those children have found alternatives, those schools are of lower quality and farther away from their homes.24

According to Haaretz, the ILA will seize UNRWA’s vocational school in Kufr ‘Aqab soon. And if the electricity is cut off from the institution, as expected, that will push the school to close its doors.25

“There is no alternative for us to deliver the kind of training [here],” Friedrich told the press. “It’s got all kind of specific infrastructure, workshops there, and not being able to work from there . . . means that these 350-plus trainees will lose access to their right to education.