Assault on UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem

On April 8, Israeli officials published a closure orders issued against six of UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem by entering by force together with armed police. These schools serve some 800 boys and girls, who have no alternatives for their right to education. These closure orders are subject to a 30-day implementation period, are illegal.As UNRWA schools are operationally independent and inviolable under international law, Israel is obliged to protect UN staff and facilities at all times.

This crackdown follows recent anti-UNWRA legislative measures in the Knesset, as well as other legislation aimed at banning Palestinians with degrees from Palestinian universities from teaching in schools run by Israeli authorities, further codifying apartheid and educational segregation.

On May 6, one month later, armed Israeli forces stormed and forcibly shut down three UNRWA-run schools in the Shuafat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem, enforcing illegal closure orders issued on 8 April, 2025.

On May 6, Israeli forces stormed schools within the Shuafat refugee camp that were operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), ordering their closure and for all students to be dismissed :

• More than 550 Palestinian children, between the ages of six and 15, were sent home,
• Teachers were harassed
• One UNRWA staff member was detained.

These evacuations left children in tears and left families wondering how their children would continue their education. Palestinian children now face an immediate and devastating loss of access to education. These schools are not only lifelines for Palestinian children, but they are also UN institutions, operating under a mandate granted by the UN General Assembly that explicitly includes East Jerusalem.

Statement of the Accountability Program Director at DCIP

“These acts are a blatant attack on children’s right to an education, on international law, and on the presence of Palestinians in their capital. Forcing children out of their schools at gunpoint is not a security measure—it is a tactic of erasure.”

Israel’s assault on UNRWA violates its obligations as a UN member state and is a calculated effort to strip Palestinians of critical, internationally guaranteed resources. DCIP calls on the international community to condemn these acts, enforce international legal obligations, and take immediate steps to protect Palestinian children’s right to education from the growing threat of Israeli state violence and repression.

Philippe Lazzarini, chief of UNRWA, Statement :

“An assault on children. An assault on education. A sad day in occupied East Jerusalem. This morning, heavily armed Israeli Forces entered three UNRWA schools in Shu’fat Camp in occupied East Jerusalem, forcing over 550 girls and boys who were in classrooms out of their schools. One UNRWA staff member was detained. As a result, UNRWA was forced to evacuate all children across the six schools it runs in East Jerusalem. Now, nearly 800 girls and boys - some as young as 6 years old - are left in shock and trauma. Storming schools and forcing them shut is a blatant disregard of international law. These schools are inviolable premises of the United Nations. By enforcing closure orders issued last month, the Israeli authorities are denying Palestinian children their basic right to learn. UNRWA schools must continue to be open to safeguard an entire generation of children.”

@UNLazzarini

The posted closure order on the UNRWA Jerusalem Girls’ Elementary School in the town of Silwan after the school’s headquarters were raided.