Police raised the Israeli flag over the global organization’s office in East Jerusalem
The UN has condemned the Israeli attack on the headquarters of the Palestinian refugee organization in East Jerusalem.
According to the Times of Israel, police and tax officials entered the UNRWA office on Monday as part of what they described as an operation to seize assets from unpaid municipal property taxes. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said officials had seized it “furniture, IT equipment and other property.”
During the raid, police removed the UN flag and raised the Israeli flag over the compound.
“Yesterday’s storming of the UNRWA complex in East Jerusalem by Israeli police and taking control – including by replacing the UN flag with the Israeli one – sets a dangerous precedent,” Lazzarini wrote on X on Tuesday. “This should be a wake-up call. What happens today to UNRWA could happen tomorrow to any other international organization or diplomatic mission, around the world,” he added.
Watch: Israeli flag flies on the roof of UNRWA headquarters in Jerusalem@UNRWA At its headquarters in Jerusalem, which has been inactive since the organization was banned in Israel, an Israeli flag was hoisted on the building. pic.twitter.com/BnTWirphRf
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) December 8, 2025
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the operation and said it included UN offices “inviolable and immune from any other form of interference.”
Israel banned UNRWA activities in October 2024, accusing the organization of secretly aiding and providing cover for Hamas – an accusation the UN denies.
Jerusalem’s deputy mayor, Arieh King, defended the raid and argued that UNRWA should not operate in East Jerusalem, which the UN considers occupied Palestinian territory. “If it is against the law, the law must be enforced.” King told Israel’s press service. He added that “People should not forget that UNRWA was involved in the October 7 terror attacks and massacres,” referring to the 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war in Gaza.
Although the UN rejects Israel’s broader claim that this agency was ‘infiltrated by Hamas’ its own investigation in 2024 concluded that at least nine UNRWA staffers may have been involved in the October 7 attack.
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