Israeli personnel arrived to dismantle the UNRWA (UN Relief Works Agency) headquarters on Ammunition Hill in northern Jerusalem on Tuesday morning.
Ammunition Hill is the central headquarters from which all of the organization’s activities in the West Bank and Jerusalem were managed. UNRWA’s main logistical infrastructure was concentrated within the building.
Israel Police noted that security forces were at the scene to ensure the safety of workers demolishing the site, which had been vacant for at least a year.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Israel to halt its demolition of the UNRWA compound and restore it and other UNRWA premises to the world body "without delay," a UN spokesperson said on Tuesday.
"The Secretary-General views as wholly unacceptable the continued escalatory actions against UNRWA, which are inconsistent with Israel’s clear obligations under international law, including under the Charter of the United Nations and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations," deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters.
UNRWA-Hamas ties, October 7 participation
Since the beginning of the war, UNRWA’s ties with the terrorist organization Hamas have been exposed, and it was discovered that some UNRWA operatives even took part in the October 7 massacre. In addition, numerous tunnels and terrorist infrastructures were found under buildings belonging to UNRWA in the Gaza Strip.
"This is a historic day, a holiday, and a very important day for Jerusalem's governance," National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stated.
"For years, these terror supporters were here, and today they are banished with everything they built."
"This is happening as a result of the laws I initiated to expel UNRWA from Israel. And redemption has come to Zion!" MK Yulia Malinovsky of Yisrael Beytenu, one of the initiators of the bill to sever ties with UNRWA, said.
The Foreign Ministry stated that the demolition was not because of any new policy, "but rather the implementation of existing Israeli legislation concerning UNRWA-Hamas."
"The State of Israel owns the Jerusalem compound in which the Israel Land Authority operates today. Even prior to the passage of legislation in January 2025, UNRWA-Hamas had already ceased its operations at this site and no longer had any UN personnel or UN activity there," the ministry stated.
"The compound does not enjoy any immunity, and the seizure of this compound by Israeli authorities was carried out in accordance with both Israeli and international law."
“The evacuation of UNRWA’s offices is not collective punishment or politics, it is the legal consequence of an organization that lost its neutrality,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of Shurat HaDin, which represents victims of the October 7 attacks in a major lawsuit against the UN body. “When UNRWA facilities and staff are tied to Hamas terror, Israel has both the right and the obligation to remove that presence from its capital.”
"There is no place in Jerusalem, our capital, for a terror-supporting organization like UNRWA," Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon echoed the sentiment in a post to X/Twitter. "We are done with them!"
Measures against UNRWA started in 2025
The measures against UNRWA began in late 2024 with Israel’s decision to outlaw all of the organization’s activities within the country’s borders.
In December 2025, the Knesset voted to disconnect UNRWA facilities from water and electricity.
Less than two weeks ago, Israeli forces arrived to evacuate the UNRWA facility in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Reuters contributed to this report.