The Jerusalem Governorate said Wednesday that Israeli forces continue to control the Qalandia Training Center operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) north of occupied Jerusalem, amid continued rotation of troops stationed inside the facility.
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The governorate said Israeli forces sent additional military reinforcements to the center overnight and in the early hours of Wednesday.
Witnesses in the area told the Jerusalem Governorate that the Jerusalem municipality had brought technical teams into the Qalandia center and begun what it described as “maintenance and renovation” work inside the facility’s buildings, in preparation for receiving students.
According to the accounts, the work is part of preparations to establish an educational complex at the center for the Jerusalem municipality, a move that further consolidates Israeli control over the facility and marks the beginning of its use for settlement and Israeli policy aimed at altering the character of the area.
Jordan condemned the Israeli authorities’ raid and evacuation of the Qalandia Training Center, describing it as a flagrant violation of international law and of the privileges and immunities afforded to the United Nations and its agencies.
The United Nations strongly condemned Tuesday what it described as the Israeli authorities’ “unauthorized entry and illegal seizure” of the UNRWA-run Qalandia Training Center in occupied East Jerusalem.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the incident was the fifth unauthorized entry by Israeli authorities into the center since May. It follows other violations of UNRWA facilities in occupied East Jerusalem, including the seizure and demolition of its compound in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and the cutting of water and electricity services to several agency facilities.
Dujarric said the UN secretary-general had condemned the actions in the strongest terms and expressed grave concern over the development, which would deprive young people of the vocational training they receive.
The secretary-general called on the Israeli government to immediately cease its interference in UNRWA facilities, evacuate all affected premises and return them to the United Nations without delay, and protect them from further interference or damage.
UNRWA also condemned what it described as a “deeply alarming unauthorized incursion” into the Qalandia Training Center, calling on the international community to take immediate action to protect the sanctity of the center and all other UN facilities in occupied East Jerusalem.
The agency said Israeli forces forcibly entered the training center at around 10 a.m. Tuesday. At least four armored vehicles entered the UN compound accompanied by more than 50 Israeli forces, while around 20 UNRWA staff members were present at the site.
UNRWA stressed that the entry of armed forces into a UN facility without the organization’s authorization or consent was “unacceptable,” noting that the Qalandia Training Center is a UN facility protected by the privileges and immunities granted to the organization under international law.
The Qalandia Training Center is UNRWA’s oldest vocational training center. It has served Palestine refugees for more than seven decades and graduated thousands of refugees. Each year, it provides hundreds of students from refugee camps across the occupied West Bank with access to free vocational education.
Ramses Alakbarov, the UN interim coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, also strongly condemned what he described as the “unauthorized entry and illegal seizure by Israeli authorities” of the UN facility.
Alakbarov said the seizure of the Qalandia Training Center would immediately deprive 340 young Palestine refugees in the West Bank of their right to education, while thousands more could be affected in the coming years.
He urged the Israeli government to immediately halt all actions affecting UN property, withdraw from the facility and refrain from taking further measures affecting the United Nations and its assets.
