Palestine blames Israel for damaging UNRWA’s West Bank offices during raid

The offices of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have been heavily damaged during an Israeli raid in a West Bank refugee camp.

The official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, alleged Israeli military bulldozers had partially demolished the UNRWA building.

The main office building had minor damage and an adjacent temporary hall was flattened, covered with dirt and its corrugated roof knocked over.

However, the Israeli military denied it damaged the building in the Nur Shams refugee camp.

It said militants had planted explosives nearby and set them off to attack Israeli troops and that the blast “likely caused damage to the building.”

The cause of the damage could not be independently confirmed but appeared consistent with previous Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes and buildings in the occupied West Bank.

The damage to the office comes after Israel’s parliament passed laws this week effectively banning UNRWA’s operations in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Israel accuses the agency of turning a blind eye to militants among its staff, a claim UNRWA denies.

The law comes into effect in three months.

“So we say this very, very clearly, UNRWA is part of the past, it’s part of the problem. UNRWA members took part in this massacre,” said Israeli government spokesperson, David Mencer.

“And now it’s time for the international community, first and foremost, the United Nations themselves, to rethink and to do what’s right in order to really be of help to Palestinians instead of just sticking to their former ideas in UNRWA, which was infiltrated, taken over and eventually massively misused by the terrorists of Hamas.”

Mencer vowed that aid will continue to reach Gaza, as Israel plans to coordinate with aid organizations or other bodies within the UN.

He added that the UN should “rethink and to do what’s right in order to really be of help to Palestinians instead of just sticking to their former ideas in UNRWA”.

Multiple UN agencies have rallied around UNRWA, calling it the “backbone” of the world body’s aid activities in Gaza and other Palestinian areas.

UNRWA provides education, health care and emergency aid to millions of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation and their descendants. 

Refugee families make up the majority of Gaza’s population of around two million people.