The United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees said Sunday, January 25, that its partially demolished headquarters in east Jerusalem was set on fire. The agency, UNRWA, did not offer details on the cause of the incident at their premises, which Israeli authorities seized and began dismantling last week after banning the organization from operating in the country in 2025.

“After having been stormed and demolished by the Israeli authorities, the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem has now been set on fire,” the agency said in a statement. It described the blaze as part of an “ongoing attempt to dismantle the status of Palestine Refugees”.

The fire and rescue service said early Sunday that it had responded to a call at the facility, where it was working to “extinguish the blaze and prevent it from spreading”, also without offering a cause.

The UN had slammed last week’s seizure and demolitions, and UNRWA insisted that its property remained protected by the privileges and immunities of the UN, a view it repeated on Sunday.

“Like any UN Member State anywhere in the world, without exception, Israel is legally obliged to protect and respect UN facilities,” UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler told AFP on Sunday.

UNRWA was created specifically for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced during the creation of Israel in 1948, and provides refugee status registration and health and education services.

Its compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem has been empty of staff since January 2025, when the law banning its operations took effect. Israel accuses UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas militants, and a series of investigations found “neutrality-related issues” at the agency but held that Israel had not provided conclusive evidence.

UNRWA still operates in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.