On Tuesday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced the closure of its headquarters in eastern Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. The move, which marks a significant shift in its operations, comes in the wake of the Israeli government’s decision to sever ties with the agency and recent legislative action banning its activities within Israel.

According to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hadath network, UNRWA is transferring key departments, including legal, communications, external relations and the commissioner-general’s office to locations outside Israel. The relocation affects Palestinian employees at the Sheikh Jarrah facility, who have been given 12 months to find alternative employment.

The closure follows the Israeli Knesset’s approval in October of a law prohibiting UNRWA’s operations in Israel.

Knesset member Dan Illouz, one of the law’s co-sponsors, celebrated UNRWA’s departure, stating, “The evacuation of UNRWA offices from Jerusalem is a historic moment. This is the end of the era of disgrace in which Israel allowed an anti-Israeli organization to operate in the heart of our capital.”

The Israeli legislation followed revelations that a number of UNRWA personnel were deeply involved in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. UNRWA has consistently denied accusations of ties to terrorism, asserting its neutrality and humanitarian focus.

The agency was established in 1949 with the mission of providing education, healthcare and social services to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East. However, critics, including Israeli officials and watchdog groups, have long accused the agency of perpetuating the refugee issue decades after the Palestinians should have been settled, as well as of being thoroughly infiltrated by terrorist groups.

David Mencer, the spokesman for the Public Diplomacy Directorate of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, told reporters, “We have provided much evidence that UNRWA works hand-in-hand with Hamas,” referring to the Hamas server farm found under UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters, the UNRWA staffers who took part in the Oct. 7 massacre and the tunnels found underneath UNRWA schools in Gaza.

“UNRWA is useless at aid distribution. UNRWA is useless at education, except glorifying suicide bombers and encouraging Jew-killing, and Israel sees no role whatsoever for UNRWA in Gaza after this war ends,” he concluded.

With reporting by JNS.