Critics say hundreds of children are likely to be moved to schools teaching Israeli curriculum, which could โeraseโ Palestinian identity.
Israel has shut down six schools run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees after moving to banish the organisation from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem early this year.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said in a statement that Israeli police forcibly entered schools in the East Jerusalem neighbourhoods of Shuafat, Silwan, Sur Baher and Wadi al-Joz on Tuesday.
Officials from the Israeli Ministry of Education were also on hand. They issued orders to close the schools within 30 days.
โIf we are forced to close, the consequences will be dire as the children will be deprived of their basic right to education, which will exacerbate their suffering and negatively affect their future,โ said Abir Ismail, director of UNRWAโs information office.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement that Israelโs orders were a โviolationโ of international law and the rules granting the UN operations protection from local jurisdictions.
โSome 800 boys and girls are directly impacted by these closure orders and are likely to miss finishing their school year,โ Lazzarini wrote.
This morning, Israeli officials from the Jerusalem Municipality, accompanied by Israeli Security Forces, forcibly entered six @UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem. They gave closure orders for the schools effective in 30 days.
UNRWA schools in occupied East Jerusalem areโฆ
โ Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) April 8, 2025
Al Jazeera correspondent Nour Odeh said the closure of the UNRWA schools is โextremely problematicโ because the children would likely end up at Israeli institutions run by the Jerusalem Municipality.
She explained that the children admitted to Israeli schools would no longer be taught under the Palestinian curriculum.
โIt is an Israeli-run curriculum that Palestinians say ignores and erases Palestinian identity,โ Odeh said from Jordanโs capital, Amman. Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the West Bank.
UNRWA currently provides humanitarian assistance to about 750,000 Palestinians.
Ismail said the aid agency maintained its โfirm commitment to continue providing educational services to Palestine refugees in East Jerusalem, including the current academic yearโ.
However, Israel has accused UNRWA employees of involvement in the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, a charge vehemently denied by the UN.
Last year, in the aftermath of those allegations,ย the Israeli Knesset passed two bills prohibiting UNRWA from conducting activities within Israelโs borders and making it illegal for Israeli officials to have any contact with UNRWA. Those measures have been in effect since January.
Odeh said Israel started implementing its ban by refusing to engage with UNRWA on the subject of aid to Gaza. But now, she explained, the country has moved on to targeting the agencyโs operations and headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.
That move, she said, is likely to have a โcrippling effectโ on UNRWAโs operations โin 19 other refugee campsโ across the occupied West Bank, affecting โPalestinians who rely on the agency, not just for education but also for health services, for psychosocial supportโ.
Odeh added that Israel has accelerated its implementation of the UNRWA ban since the start of its โIron Wallโ military incursion in the West Bank in January.
The operation was launched just two days after a ceasefire took effect in Gaza.
It has involved the Israeli military bombing and bulldozing communities across the West Bank, razing entire residential areas in what critics fear is a bid to move towards full annexation.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been uprooted from the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps as part of the military campaign.
UNRWA was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 to provide assistance to Palestinians displaced from their land during the creation of Israel in 1948, an event known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or โcatastropheโ.
