Jerusalem, (EFE). – The Israeli Education Ministry ordered Tuesday the closure within 30 days of six primary schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in East Jerusalem, UNRWA spokesman Roland Friedrich said in a statement.
“UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem are under threat, with closure orders issued against six of them today by Israeli officials who entered by force together with armed police. These schools serve some 800 boys and girls who have no alternatives for their right to education,” Friedrich wrote on X.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini also denounced the closure, stressing in an X message that the agency’s schools “are protected by the privileges and immunities of the United Nations.”
“Unauthorized entries & issuance of closure orders are a violation of these protections and represent a revocation of Israel’s obligations under international law,” Lazzarini added.
On Jan. 30, two laws went into effect prohibiting UNRWA from operating in Israeli “sovereign territory;” East Jerusalem was occupied and unilaterally annexed in 1980.
The laws also barred Israeli blockading government agencies from cooperating with the UN agency, whose staff must now cross military posts in the occupied West Bank or coordinate with the army to deliver aid in the devastated Gaza Strip.
On Feb. 18, Israeli security forces, together with the Jerusalem Municipality, ordered the immediate evacuation of the UNRWA Vocational Training Center in Qalandia refugee camp, which continues to operate.
Every three years since 1949, the UN General Assembly has renewed UNRWA’s mandate to provide essential education and health services to Palestine refugees who fled or were forced to leave their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The refugees, along with their descendants, currently number nearly five million people, distributed in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. EFE
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