UN demands Israel nix UNRWA ban, return Jerusalem real estate

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres threatens to take Israel to court over its ban on the UNRWA agency and seizure of UNRWA facilities in Jerusalem.

By World Israel News Staff

The United Nations is demanding Israel cancel its ban on a UN Palestinian relief agency accused of ties to Hamas and other Gaza terror groups, and has threatened to take the Jewish state to court to secure the return of the agency’s facilities in Jerusalem.

On Tuesday, multiple media outlets revealed the contents of a letter penned by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on January 8 to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding that Israel repeal laws targeting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and return facilities in Jerusalem that Israel recently seized.

In the letter, Guterres called Israel’s seizure of an UNRWA compound in Jerusalem’s Maalot Dafna neighborhood “unauthorized,” while denying Israeli sovereignty over the area, which Guterres described as “occupied.”

Guterres also condemned the recently passed law barring the provision of basic utilities to UNRWA facilities, and demanded the law be repealed.

“The United Nations cannot remain indifferent to the actions taken by Israel, which are in direct contravention of its obligations under international law and must be reversed without delay,” Guterres wrote.

Should Israel fail to repeal laws targeting UNRWA and return property previously occupied by the agency, Guterres added, the UN will be forced to refer the matter to the international body’s judicial organ, the International Court of Justice.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon accused Guterres of attempting to “intimidate Israel and to “whitewash” UNRWA’s ties to Gaza terror groups including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“The UN Secretary-General is trying to intimidate Israel. In a letter he sent to Prime Minister Netanyahu, he threatened to file a complaint with the International Court of Justice in The Hague against the State of Israel,” Danon wrote on his X account Tuesday.

“Instead of addressing the serious issue of UNRWA employees being involved in terrorism, he is trying to whitewash crimes committed by UNRWA, which acts as a subsidiary of Hamas. We are done with UNRWA!”