UNRWA, created to deal with Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced from their homes during the 1948 war following the creation of Israel, has long been a target of Israeli hostility.
The Israel Land Authority (ATI) has informed the UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) that it must vacate its headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem within 30 days, after approving the claim presented by the Israeli Minister of Housing, the ultra-Orthodox Yitzhak Goldknopf.
In a letter sent to UNRWA on Tuesday, ATI wrote that the agency owes it a sum of more than 27 million shekels (about 7 million euros) for operating on land belonging to Israel “without consent for the last seven years.” , Hebrew media report.
Minister Goldknopf reported that the measure, which he himself first requested in February from the ATI, had received the green light from his ministry’s legal advisor.
He further instructed the agency that it is “obliged to immediately stop any illegal use, destroy anything constructed in violation of the law, clear the land of any person or item, and return it to the ATI within 30 days of the date of the letter.”
“If you do not comply, the ATI reserves the right to respond with all legal means, and you will have to assume the costs that this entails. No other warning will be sent,” the letter adds.
UNRWA, created to deal with Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced from their homes during the 1948 war following the creation of Israel, has long been a target of Israeli hostility.
Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA has been in the crosshairs of Israel, which accused a dozen agency employees of participating in the Hamas attacks of October 7 and alleges that more than two hundreds of its staff have ties to Islamists; and does not hide his intention to close it.
In recent weeks, extremist Israelis have attacked the UNRWA headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem on several occasions, forcing the agency to temporarily close its headquarters.
These accusations caused many donor countries to cut their funding to UNRWA last January, although most have resumed it in the absence of conclusive evidence presented by Israel.
Source: Eitb
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