Israeli crews on Tuesday started bulldozing the Jerusalem headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, pushing forward with its crackdown against an organization tasked with delivering humanitarian services to millions of people across the region. Israel has long accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency of collaborating with Hamas—a charge it denies—and last year banned it from operating on its territory. But Tuesday's demolition marked Israel's latest and most dramatic step against UNRWA, per the AP.
Roland Friedrich, the group's West Bank director, said UNRWA had received word that demolition crews and police arrived at their east Jerusalem headquarters in the morning. Staff has not worked there due to danger and incitement for almost a year, but Israeli forces confiscated devices and forced out the private security hired to guard the facility. "What we saw today is the culmination of two years of incitement and measures against UNRWA in east Jerusalem," Friedrich said, calling it a violation of international law guaranteeing such facilities protection.
UNRWA's mandate is to provide aid and services to some 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more refugees in Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. The group has for years maintained infrastructure in refugee camps and also run schools and provided health care. But its operations were curtailed last year when Israel's Knesset passed legislation severing ties and banning it from functioning in what it defines as Israel—including east Jerusalem. Israel has contended the agency perpetuates Palestinians' refugee status, while UNRWA supporters have said Israel's attacks on the agency are aimed at sidelining the issue—one of the most contentious dividing Israelis and Palestinians.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
