The Israeli authorities on Tuesday began bulldozing buildings of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in East Jerusalem.

The compound includes the local headquarters of the agency, which is the main United Nations Palestinian refugee body.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UNRWA, said that the demolitions were a “new level of open and deliberate defiance of international law” by Israel.

The demolitions constitute an “unprecedented attack against a United Nations agency”, the organisation said.

The agency said that the demolitions took place “under the watch of [Israeli] lawmakers and a member of the government”, adding that Israel is obligated to protect UN premises.

The demolitions came in the wake of steps taken by the Israeli authorities to “erase the Palestine Refugee identity”, the UN agency said. It added that on January 14, the Israeli forces had stormed a UN health centre in East Jerusalem and ordered it to close.

Water and power supplies to UNRWA facilities, including health and education buildings, are also scheduled to be cut in the coming weeks, the agency said.

Established in 1949, the UN agency provides healthcare, food aid and education to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. There are nearly six million Palestinians under the mandate of the UNRWA, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The actions are a result of a law passed by the Israeli Parliament in December, the UN agency said. On December 29, the country’s Parliament had cleared a law prohibiting the provision of water and electricity to facilities linked to the UNRWA.

This followed two laws passed by the Israeli Parliament in October 2024 to ban the UN agency from operating in the country.

The Palestinian Prime Minister’s Office said that the demolitions were “yet another live-streamed gruesome crime in violation of international law”. The actions defy the International Court of Justice’s October 26 advisory opinion that Israel must not obstruct the UN agency’s work in the occupied territories, it added.

Site not used by UN, does not enjoy immunity, claims Israel

The Israeli foreign ministry said that Tel Aviv owns the Jerusalem compound.

“Even prior to the passage of legislation in January 2025, UNRWA had already ceased its operations at this site and no longer had any UN personnel or UN activity there,” a ministry spokesperson said, claiming that the compound does not enjoy immunity.

The compound was seized by the Israeli authorities in accordance with Israeli and international law, the spokesperson added.

The UN and the international community do not recognise East Jerusalem as part of Israel and instead views it as an unlawfully occupied Palestinian territory.

Tel Aviv said that the demolitions on Tuesday were not a new policy and that it was implementing an existing Israeli legislation relating to the UNRWA.

The spokesperson reiterated claims that employees of the UNRWA had participated in the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza began in October 2023 after Hamas killed 1,200 persons during its incursion into southern Israel and took hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on besieged Gaza since then, leaving more than 70,000 persons dead.