Jordan slams Israeli ‘defiance of international law’ after protest outside UNRWA HQ

By Laith Junaidi

AMMAN, Jordan (AA) - Jordan strongly condemned on Wednesday a protest by Israeli right-wingers outside the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in East Jerusalem as a "blatant defiance of international law."

Right-wing groups staged protests outside the UNRWA office in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood on Tuesday evening to call for its closure.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini denounced the protest, during which demonstrators tried to storm the site, as “intimidation” and “vandalism.”

The protest “is a blatant defiance of international law that stipulates the need to protect United Nations facilities,” the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It held Israel “responsible for protecting the headquarters and staff of international organizations providing humanitarian aid to civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Gaza."

The UNRWA has been facing Israeli pressure over unproven allegations that some agency staff were involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

The US and some of its Western allies initially suspended funding to UNRWA in January, but others such as the EU, Canada and Sweden have since backtracked and plan to resume funding.

UNRWA was created by the UN General Assembly more than 70 years ago to assist Palestinians who were forcibly displaced from their land.

The agency provides crucial support to millions of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and other areas where large numbers of registered Palestinians live.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul