Israel Seizes UNRWA's Last Major Base in East Jerusalem, 340 Trainees Displaced

On Tuesday, August 25, 2026, Israeli security forces raided and seized that centre in Kafr Aqab, occupied East Jerusalem⁠2⁠6⁠9. Multiple news reports described it as the last UNRWA facility still operating in the city, which is what makes the operation more than a property dispute⁠2⁠6⁠9. UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees, has operated in Jerusalem for decades, and the loss of Qalandiya leaves it with no major operational foothold in the city according to senior agency officials⁠11⁠4.

The raid itself was forceful. Israeli forces forcibly entered the compound, fired tear gas in Qalandia refugee camp during the operation, and detained Palestinians⁠2⁠8. Reporting on the day described a coordinated entry into a clearly marked United Nations site, followed by a seizure that UN leaders would quickly call unlawful⁠2⁠8. By midday Friday, August 28, Israeli troops had withdrawn from the centre⁠4. What they left behind, according to UNRWA, was damage and signs of looting⁠10.

What was inside matters for understanding the scale of loss. UNRWA said over $5 million in assets were housed at the centre and were at risk after the raid⁠10⁠11. Roland Friedrich, UNRWA's director of affairs in the West Bank, reported damage and signs of looting after the apparent withdrawal⁠10⁠11. The agency had warned from the first day that equipment, student records, workshops, and training materials concentrated in one vocational campus could not easily be replaced or moved, even if staff regained access⁠10⁠3.

To grasp why diplomats reacted so quickly, it helps to understand what Qalandiya was. The centre, established in 1952, offered vocational training to around 340 Palestinians annually⁠9. Al Jazeera later described it as UNRWA's first and last vocational college in East Jerusalem, a place where refugee youth spent two years gaining a trade rather than sitting in overcrowded general classrooms⁠4. UN News emphasized the same warning: if the seizure holds, those students face interruption or outright loss of their courses at the age when a certificate leads directly to a job⁠3⁠5.

Israel has offered a different future for the site. Israeli accounts say the site will become a new school and community complex for local residents, and that the action followed legislation barring UNRWA from operating in the country, passed nearly two years earlier⁠5. That timing points to the laws passed in late 2024 that sought to ban UNRWA operations in Israel and cut official contact with the agency⁠5. From Israel's perspective, the Qalandiya move was therefore an enforcement step, not an isolated raid⁠5.

The politics around the raid were unusually public inside Israel as well. Ynet reported Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir defied Netanyahu, turning the eviction into a fresh diplomatic crisis⁠5. The report suggests the operation was not simply a quiet administrative handover to municipal educators but an assertive security-led eviction that widened a rift at the top of the Israeli government even as international condemnation grew⁠5.

That condemnation came fast from the United Nations. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the incursion as "unlawful" and demanded the premises' return⁠2⁠8. The UN noted it was the fifth such incursion at the site since May, a pattern that undermines any claim of a one-off enforcement error⁠8. UNRWA chief Christian Saunders told Al Jazeera the raid was part of a campaign "to weaken [the agency] and eliminate Palestinian rights"⁠7. Taken together, the UN position is that UN premises are inviolable and that repeated entries, detention of people on UN ground, and seizure of training equipment cannot be normalized as municipal administration⁠2⁠8⁠7.