![Students walk past one of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools in East Jerusalem, as local media report that police forces raided several UNRWA schools in the city and informed them of a decision to close and evacuate the schools within a week. Jerusalem, February 18, 2025. [Saeed Qaq/NurPhoto via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/GettyImages-2199744372.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Israeli occupation forces yesterday raided six UNRWA-run schools in the Shuafat refugee camp, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, expelling students and staff from the buildings and closing them.
Israel Police were deployed around the schools and within their grounds.
This came after Israeli occupation authorities delivered a military order to the principal of the girls’ school in Shuafat refugee camp in April, ordering the school to close by 8 May, on the grounds of “lack of legal authorisation”. The order prohibited entry into the school buildings as of that date.
The decision included five other UNRWA-run schools in Silwan, Wadi Al-Joz and Sur Baher, where more than 800 refugee students receive their education.
Israel labelled UNRWA a “terrorist organisation” in July last year, banning its operations and ordering all schools run by the UN body to close and for students to be moved to Israeli institutions.
Hamas yesterday condemned the Israeli occupation’s attack on schools, saying it “is part of a comprehensive war against the Palestinian presence and identity, particularly in Occupied Jerusalem, as part of its relentless efforts to fully Judaise the city.”
The movement called on the United Nations, its agencies and all relevant international bodies and organisations to take urgent and effective action to halt the Israeli “criminal violations”, to pressure for the reopening of the schools, and to ensure that more than 800 Palestinian boys and girls are able to return to their classrooms.
Israel has repeatedly equated UNRWA staff with Hamas members in efforts to discredit them, providing no proof of the claims, while lobbying hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees. If the agency no longer exists, argues Israel, then the refugee issue must no longer exist, and the legitimate right for Palestinian refugees to return to their land will be unnecessary. Israel has denied that right of return since the late 1940s, even though its own membership of the UN was made conditional upon Palestinian refugees being allowed to return to their homes and land.
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