Date: 8/12/2025
- The Israeli decision necessitates Arab and international action to stop Israel's disregard for the UN system.
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The Refugee Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization condemned the raid by Israeli occupation forces on the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, emphasizing that the raid constitutes an attack on the United Nations and its organizations and a violation of its Charter.
In its statement, the department clarified that the Israeli occupation army's storming of UNRWA headquarters, conducting searches, detaining security personnel, and confiscating their phones is a dangerous precedent by a member state of the United Nations and a party to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, which stipulates the inviolability of UN premises.
She added: “The absence of international deterrence against Israel and its impunity have emboldened it to disregard the international system and persist in its crimes, violations of international law, and attacks on the UN agency UNRWA.”
She explained that the raid and search operation constitutes illegal practices that blatantly violate General Assembly resolutions related to the immunities and protection of international organizations, including UNRWA’s founding resolution 302, Article 17, the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, and Security Council Resolution 2730, adopted on May 24, 2024, which obligates states to respect and protect UN institutions and humanitarian personnel. It also contradicts the International Court of Justice’s ruling and advisory opinion issued in July 2024, which affirmed that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and the ICJ’s advisory opinion of October 2025, which obligates the occupying power to cooperate with UNRWA and respect its immunities and privileges as a UN agency.
She pointed out that the occupying government is taking rapid steps in a race against time to undermine UNRWA's mandate and end its work because of its role in protecting the rights of Palestinian refugees and because it embodies an international commitment towards Palestinian refugees until a political solution is found for their issue in accordance with Resolution 194. She emphasized that the attack on UNRWA's headquarters is an extension of a series of Israeli measures targeting UNRWA, including freezing its financial accounts in Israeli banks, preventing its Commissioner-General from entering the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem, and waging an open war against its staff and facilities in the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in the deaths of 381 UNRWA employees and the destruction of more than 270 UNRWA facilities, either completely or partially. This is all part of implementing the racist laws passed by the Israeli Knesset in 2014, which target UNRWA by prohibiting its activities in occupied East Jerusalem and undermining its mandate in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These laws were later amended to prevent the supply of water and electricity to UNRWA headquarters and facilities.
The department called on the international community to protect and support UNRWA financially and politically to enable it to fulfill its mandate in accordance with relevant General Assembly resolutions, including Resolution 302, and to ensure its continued operation until the rights of Palestinian refugees are realized and a just solution is found, in accordance with international law and UN resolutions, particularly Resolution 194.
It also called on the UN General Assembly to take practical measures to compel the Israeli occupying power to cease its crimes and violations of UN resolutions, its Charter, and its organizations, to stop its disregard for the UN system and its attacks on UNRWA, and to repeal the laws targeting the agency.
