Israel turns UN health facility into detention centre in West Bank: UNRWA

Israeli forces have turned a health center for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the southern West Bank into a detention facility in violation of international law, the UN agency reported on Friday.

In a statement, UNRWA said Israeli forces "used the UNRWA Arroub Camp Health Centre (near Bethlehem) as a temporary detention site during a search and arrest operation on 12 February.”

The Israeli forces "forcibly entered the health centre and used it for the detention and interrogation of tens of Palestinian residents rounded up in the camp," the agency said.

UNRWA noted that “this is a new development in the blatant disregard for the inviolability of United Nations facilities,” adding that “this recent incident follows a pattern of forcible entries into UNRWA installations in the West Bank since October 2023, by both Israeli security forces and Palestinian armed groups.”

It also stressed that “since 30 January and the implementation of Knesset (Israeli parliament) laws, including a no-contact policy between UNRWA and Israeli authorities, the Agency is no longer able to engage with Israeli officials and directly report and deconflict such incidents as they occur.”

The agency emphasised that “all UN premises are inviolable and are protected under international law.”

Banning UNRWA

Last October, the Israeli parliament passed two laws that called for ending the agency's operations in Israel and occupied Palestinian territories, and prohibiting Israeli authorities from having any contact with the agency.

The laws came into effect on January 30.

This latest incident comes amid a devastating offensive by the Israeli army in Jenin and Tulkarem in the northern West Bank that started on January 21 and has so far left over 30 people killed, displaced thousands of people and also caused wide-scale destruction.

The Israeli escalation in the occupied West Bank follows a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal in Gaza on January 19 after more than 15 months of Israeli bombardment which has killed over 48,200 Palestinians and devastated the enclave.

Since the war began on October 7, 2023, Israeli forces and settlers have killed over 910 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.