The United Nations is weighing its legal options following Israel’s decision to construct a defense ministry facility at the former site of a UN Palestinian relief organization’s headquarters in east Jerusalem, officials announced Tuesday.
The Israeli government gave approval over the weekend for the defense ministry project at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency location in Sheikh Jarrah, which will feature a museum and recruitment center.
“The matter is currently under consideration at the level of the legal council, the highest legal authority of the United Nations in New York,” UNRWA Deputy Commissioner General Natalie Boucly told The Associated Press during a visit to Syria.
“These are U.N. premises and, at a minimum, this is a breach of the 1946 UN Convention on privileges and immunities,” she said.
Israeli forces demolished portions of the UNRWA facility in January, marking the culmination of a long-standing opposition campaign against the organization that intensified after the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli officials have claimed the U.N. organization employed individuals with Hamas connections, alleging some participated in the attacks. UNRWA leadership maintains they acted quickly against accused employees and reject claims the agency supports or works with Hamas.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz described the defense complex proposal as “a decision of sovereignty, Zionism and security.”
“In a place where an organization that became part of the terror and incitement mechanism against Israel operated, institutions will be established that will strengthen Jerusalem, the (Israeli army), and the State of Israel,” Katz said in a statement on Sunday.
The announcement coincided with Jerusalem Day, commemorating Israel’s seizure of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and religious sites important to Jews, Christians and Muslims, during the 1967 Mideast war. Israel views all of Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians want east Jerusalem as their future state’s capital.
The UNRWA facility closed in May 2025 when far-right demonstrators, including at least one parliament member, breached its entrance while police watched.
UNRWA serves approximately 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, plus 3 million refugees across Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. The agency’s work was restricted after Israel’s Knesset enacted laws cutting ties and prohibiting operations in areas Israel defines as its territory — including east Jerusalem.
Boucly described Gaza’s humanitarian conditions as “absolutely dire.” Though Israel has blocked UNRWA international personnel from Gaza, roughly 10,000 local employees continue working there as educators, medical staff and sanitation workers, she noted.
Even with a fragile ceasefire in place, “there are issues with insufficient aid coming in,” she explained. “It is not coming in at scale and reconstruction is not starting fast enough for the people to see a real change on the ground.”
Boucly spoke with the AP from Syria’s Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, where conditions appear more promising as former residents who departed during the nation’s 14-year civil conflict have slowly returned.
Various militant organizations controlled the camp before government forces under then President Bashar Assad bombarded it, leaving it nearly empty by 2018. Structures surviving the bombing were either torn down by authorities or looted.
Following Assad’s removal in 2024, previous residents started returning and fixing their damaged properties. By April, approximately 60,000 people had come back to the camp, with 80% being Palestinian refugees, Boucly reported.
Aid for returning residents has been restricted, she admitted. UNRWA has obtained donor funding to restore educational facilities and medical centers, but can only offer minimal help to families needing home repairs, she said.
Despite concerns about declining financial support, she stated, “I think there is a situation of hope for Palestine refugees” in Syria.
