The Israeli police announced the complete control over the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) compound in the town of Kafr Aqab in East Jerusalem, and the beginning of evacuating its employees and demolishing it, according to what was announced by the extremist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

This action comes as a continuation of a series of ongoing escalation steps; the occupation army and its bulldozers had previously demolished the main headquarters and the agency's compound in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem in January 2026, and then the Israeli government approved a plan in May of the same year to establish an Israeli defense complex on its ruins.

The Israeli newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth" reported today (Tuesday) that Ben Gvir stated: "Large forces of the Israeli police have removed the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees from the site, claiming that it is an organization whose employees are involved in terrorist activities, and it has repeatedly served as a front for Hamas."

He added that "sovereignty is not just words, but it is action. Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel, and it will remain so. Anyone who establishes nests for terrorism there will be removed."

The UNRWA compound includes educational, vocational, and health facilities, while the Israeli authorities, according to previous plans, aim to establish an educational complex managed by the Jerusalem municipality and the Israeli Ministry of Education on the same land.

The Jerusalem Governorate warned last June of a plan targeting the UNRWA vocational training college in Kafr Aqab, considering it a threat to the continuation of the agency's work in the area.

This step comes in the context of ongoing Israeli measures against UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem, amid Palestinian criticisms that consider it an attempt to end the institutional and service presence of the agency in the city.