[rewrite this title The occupation closes UNRWA schools in Jerusalem news ]

With the expiry of the deadline set by the Israeli occupation to close the UN UNGs and Works Agency (UNRWA) in eastern Jerusalem today, the occupation police, accompanied by members of the municipality and the Israeli Ministry of Education, stormed the schools after besieging them to implement the locking orders by force.

The director of the agency’s media office, Abeer Ismail, said that the stormed forces “intercepted an employee working in a school, requested to highlight personal identities and recorded the employees’ numbers, and asked them to end the students ’permanence immediately.”

In her interview with Al -Jazeera, Ismail added that more than 550 students are between the ages of 6 and 15 and their teachers were in schools at the moment of its storming, noting that this constitutes a serious violation of the privileges and fortresses of the United Nations.

She pointed out that this “shocking experience for young children who face the risk of losing their right to education immediately, especially since the current academic year continues until June 20, 2025.”

Ismail concluded her talk to Al -Jazeera Net by saying that the agency had released its students from all six schools in order to preserve their safety.

“The armed Israeli security forces, in cooperation with the officials of the Ministry of Education and the Jerusalem municipality, besieged the three schools of UNRWA in Shuafat and stormed them by force with the intention of implementing the closing order,” said Ronald Frederick, Director of UNRWA in the West Bank.

Frederick explained that this was done at a time when more than 550 students between the ages of 6 and 15 and their teachers are in schools.

The Director of UNRWA described the step as “a violation of the privileges and fate of the United Nations, and that this is a shocking experience for young children who face the risk of losing their right to education immediately.”

Today, Thursday, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the company of elements from the municipality and the Israeli Ministry of Education, schools affiliated with UNRWA in the Shuafat camp in occupied Jerusalem, and ordered their closure after the deadline set by the occupation to close these schools.
The director of the agency’s media office, Abeer Ismail, told Al -Jazeera … pic.twitter.com/dcm0z717md

Al -Jazeera Net Jerusalem (@Tel Aviv Tribunequds) May 8, 2025

Palestinian condemnation

For its part, the Palestinian Ministry of Education condemned the Israeli step, which is a violation of the right of children to education.

The ministry’s spokesman, Sadiq Khaddour, called on “international human rights institutions and education to exercise pressure on Israel to retract this decision,” noting that children who benefit from education in these schools are “in the basic stage.”

It is noteworthy that on April 8, the Israeli Ministry of Education and elements of the occupation police stormed 6 schools that fall within the borders of the occupation municipality in Jerusalem and belong to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and their most dangerous closure.

The crews of the Ministry of Education at the time distributed announcements in which the parents of UNRWA school students said in the forefront that these schools operate from “without a license and other than what is stipulated in the law”, and urged the parents to transfer their children to schools operating under the umbrella of the occupation municipality in the city.

The Israeli Ministry of Education crews target 1100 male and female students receiving their education on the seats of UNRWA schools in each of the Shuafat, Silwan, Tire Baher and Wadi al -Jawz, in an effort to increase the number of students affiliated with its schools, and reduce the number of students studying the Palestinian curriculum, in addition to strengthening the ministry’s control over the educational system in Jerusalem.

It is noteworthy that days after the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, a necessary agreement was signed between the occupying state and UNRWA called the “Komai-McLimore” agreement, through which UNRWA’s role and tasks were set and its privileges and diplomatic fortifications were established.

Before that, in the aftermath of the 1948 war, UNRWA was established under Resolution No. 302 issued by the United Nations General Assembly on December 8, 1949 with the aim of providing direct relief programs and operation to Palestinian refugees, and the agency began its operations on May 1, 1950.