The Jerusalem Municipality began renovation work on a new educational and community complex at what has been an UNRWA facility in Kafr Akab on Tuesday, according to the Foreign Ministry.
More than NIS 40 million is being invested in the initial stage of the project, including a municipal boys’ high school scheduled to open next week at the start of the school year. The longer-term plan includes additional schools, a mosque, and sports, community, and healthcare facilities intended to serve thousands of Arab residents of the neighborhood.
The site is known as the Kalandia Training Center, a vocational education facility that was operated by UNRWA for over 70 years.
UNRWA says the center has provided vocational training to approximately 350 young Palestinians in subjects including vehicle maintenance, plumbing, carpentry, renewable energy, and information technology.
The compound is situated beside the Kalandia refugee camp, but according to the boundaries recognized under Israeli law, it is located within Jerusalem’s municipal territory. Kafr Akab is in the northernmost part of the capital, on the other side of the security barrier.
The Foreign Ministry said the land has been owned by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) since 1937, was allocated to the municipality, and UNRWA has no property rights there. The ministry has accused the UN agency of fencing off land needed by local residents for schools and public services.
UNRWA disputes that account. It says that the Jordanian government made the land available to the agency before Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967 and argues that the training center is a protected United Nations installation. The agency has described previous Israeli entries into the compound as unauthorized and warned that its closure would eliminate an important vocational institution for young Palestinians from across the West Bank.
A 2022 government decision instructed the Israel Land Authority (ILA) to allocate land in Kafr Akab for a municipal educational campus teaching the Israeli curriculum. The municipality has since advanced a broader plan for public and educational facilities in the area.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday afternoon, “In accordance with my directive and following the law we passed, the evacuation of the UNRWA compound in Kafr Aqab, Jerusalem, began today.”
Ben-Gvir announces further legislation against UNRWA activity
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived at the site on Tuesday morning and portrayed the municipal work as a police operation to take control of the compound and remove UNRWA.
“Today we are making history,” Ben-Gvir said. “This morning, we are beginning the work to remove UNRWA from Kafr Aqab.”
He said that police were working with other authorities to enforce legislation restricting UNRWA’s activities in Israel and accused the agency of providing cover for Hamas.
Israel Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky, who initiated the legislation, accused Ben-Gvir of attempting to claim credit for the operation.
The work began five days after she, B’Tsalmo, and Yaakov Samerano petitioned the High Court against Ben-Gvir and other ministers over their failure to implement the law.
Malinovsky argued that the petition had forced action after more than six months of warnings, adding, “Without my High Court petition, and if we were not in an election period, he would have continued sleeping.”
Samerano is the father of Yonatan Samerano, who was murdered during the October 7 massacre and whose body was taken into Gaza by an UNRWA employee, according to footage presented by Israel. His body was later returned to Israel.
The petition says that the government missed a 30-day deadline set by a December 2025 amendment to take possession of the Kafr Akab site. The municipality requested security assistance in January, but the operation was delayed because of constraints on the forces needed to carry it out.
The petitioners are asking the High Court to require police and the IDF to provide those forces or to set a binding deadline. The court has not yet ruled.
Tuesday’s work may resolve the case, but only if the state confirms that it has formally taken possession of the site, rather than merely allowing municipal contractors to enter.
Knesset bars UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 to provide education, healthcare, and other services to Palestinian refugees across the region.
In 2024, the Knesset prohibited UNRWA from operating in territory over which Israel claims sovereignty – including east Jerusalem – and barred state authorities from maintaining contact with the agency. A December 2025 amendment extended the restrictions and authorized the state to take possession of designated UNRWA sites in Kafr Akab and Ma’alot Dafna. The Ma’alot Dafna compound was taken over in January.
The legislation followed Israeli allegations that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) had infiltrated UNRWA and used its facilities. UNRWA denies any institutional affiliation with Hamas.
A UN investigation found that nine of 19 employees investigated may have been involved in the October 7 attacks and subsequently terminated their employment. It found insufficient or no evidence against the others. A separate review identified weaknesses in UNRWA’s neutrality safeguards but said Israel had not provided evidence supporting its broader claims about the agency’s workforce.
A separate High Court challenge to the laws ended last week without a ruling on their legality. The petitioners withdrew the case after the justices expressed skepticism about their arguments, and the court dismissed it without deciding whether the laws were valid.
Netanyahu said on Tuesday, “The State of Israel will not allow an organization whose employees were complicit in terrorism and the October 7 massacre to operate within its territory and will act against it by all means at its disposal.”
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.