Unrwa chief denounces Israeli police's seizure of agency's Jerusalem assets

The chief of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees denounced the Israeli authorities' seizure of assets from its east Jerusalem compound on Monday, which police told AFP was part of a debt-collection operation.

"Today in the early morning, Israeli police accompanied by municipal officials forcibly entered the Unrwa compound in East Jerusalem," Philippe Lazzarini said on X.

With trucks and forklifts, the authorities took "furniture, IT equipment and other property", and the compound's United Nations flag was replaced with an Israeli one, Lazzarini added.

Lazzarini has been declared persona non grata by Israeli authorities, who banned his agency from operating inside the country early this year.

The compound in occupied east Jerusalem has been empty of Unrwa staff since January, when the Israeli law banning its operations took effect after a months-long battle over its work in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement strongly condemning Israeli authorities' "unauthorised entry" into the east Jerusalem compound.

"This compound remains United Nations premises and is inviolable and immune from any other form of interference," he added, urging Israel to "immediately take all necessary steps to restore, preserve and uphold the inviolability of Unrwa premises and to refrain from taking any further action".