Israel to build defense compound on site of demolished UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem

Destruction of UNRWA buildings in East Jerusalem in January 2026

Nir Hasson reports in Haaretz on 17 May 2026:

The Israeli government has approved plans to establish a Defense Ministry complex on the site of the former headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in East Jerusalem.

Under the plan, the site will house an Israel Defense Forces museum, a military induction center and an office for the defense minister.

The compound, originally built by the British Mandate government, served UNWRA for decades until Israel banned the agency in October 2024. The planned construction of an Israeli defense complex east of the Green Line, on a site vacated by the United Nations, is expected to complicate visits by diplomats and representatives of foreign governments.

Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that “the government decision we advanced today is a decision of sovereignty, Zionism and security.” The post included an AI-generated image showing Katz against a backdrop of bulldozers demolishing the UNRWA compound.

“There is nothing more symbolic or justified than establishing the IDF’s new induction center and defense institutions precisely on the ruins of the UNRWA compound,” Katz said, adding that the agency’s employees “took part in the massacre, murder and atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists on October 7.”

The military induction center planned for the site will be relocated from Jerusalem’s Romema neighborhood, where it has operated for decades. Over the years, Romema’s ultra-Orthodox population has grown, and the presence of the induction center has become a source of tension. Ultra-Orthodox protesters have demonstrated against conscription near the office, and clashes have occasionally erupted between prospective recruits and ultra-Orthodox passersby.

A veteran Jerusalem urban planner said the relocation amounted to a retreat by the state. “It is clear this is being done first and foremost to screw UNRWA, but in practice it also means the army and the State of Israel are retreating from Romema,” he said. “The military clearly did not like the old office, but the message is the creation of a new seam line in Jerusalem between Haredi neighborhoods and non-Haredi areas.”

UNRWA received the property from the Jordanian government, which controlled the area until the 1967 war, and Israel later allowed the agency to continue operating there. Since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, the compound has become a target for harassment by Jewish youths. Molotov cocktails were thrown at the site several times. No arrests were reported.

At the start of 2025, after Israeli laws banning UNRWA activity inside Israel took effect, agency personnel left the compound and moved management operations to Amman, Jordan’s capital.

In December, Israel Police and Jerusalem municipal officials raided the compound, confiscated equipment, removed the UN flag from the roof and raised an Israeli flag in its place. In January, the municipality demolished several structures on the site.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the action at the time, saying the site “remains United Nations premises and is inviolable.” The UN said the entry of Israeli forces, the confiscation of equipment and the demolition of buildings violated international law and Israel’s obligations under the UN Charter. The compound has remained vacant since December.

Most of Israel’s allegations against UNRWA center on claims that agency employees collaborated with Hamas and participated in the October 7 attack. Israel also alleges that Hamas used UNRWA facilities in Gaza, particularly schools, for years.

UNRWA officials deny the allegations and point to UN reports and data that they say present a more complex picture than the one portrayed by Israel. According to the agency, Israel has so far provided convincing evidence implicating 12 employees out of approximately 12,000 staff members in Gaza in ties to Hamas. Evidence considered sufficiently compelling was presented against nine of those employees, all of whom were either killed by the Israeli military or dismissed by the agency. One was identified as the militant filmed abducting the body of Yonatan Samerano.

Most countries that fund UNRWA suspended their support to the agency following Israel’s accusations but later restored funding. The agency continues to play a major role in providing services in Palestinian refugee camps in both Gaza and the West Bank.

For years, the Israeli military and Defense Ministry have sought to establish a central museum dedicated to the history of the IDF. The original plan was to build the museum at Mount Eitan, west of Jerusalem. In recent years, planners shifted to a proposed site in Jerusalem’s Nayot neighborhood, and architectural plans were prepared for the project there.

More recently, however, the Defense Ministry, the Jerusalem municipality and the Israel Land Authority decided to move the project to the former UNRWA compound. The site is next to Ammunition Hill, where a small museum commemorating the battle fought there during the 1967 Six-Day War already operates.

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