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Israeli forces entered and closed Jerusalem schools run by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees on Thursday in the latest step by authorities to push the organisation out of the territory.
Heavily armed Israeli personnel, along with municipal and education officials, raided three UNRWA schools in the Shuafat refugee camp, detaining a staff member and ordering others to dismiss students immediately, according to a statement from the organisation. It said the actions were a “violation of international law”.
More than 550 pupils aged six to 15 were in attendance. UNRWA officials also reported that Israeli forces were stationed at three other schools run by the agency, where teachers dismissed 250 pupils “to ensure their safety”.
Israeli legislation to ban the organisation came into effect in January and closure orders were issued by police to the Jerusalem schools last month. Israel has long been strongly opposed to the work and existence of UNRWA, criticising its school curriculums, which it says encourage incitement and the organisation’s role in extending continuing refugee status to Palestinians whose families were dispossessed and displaced in the 1948 war.
Israeli criticism became even more intense after the attacks of October 7, 2023. It alleged that about 10 per cent of UNRWA staff in the Gaza Strip, about 1,200 people, were affiliated with Palestinian militant groups who carried out the attacks in southern Israel. UNRWA says it has not received any information, “let alone evidence”, from Israel or any UN member state about the claim.
UNRWA said that Thursday’s raids in Jerusalem were “traumatising 800 young children who are at immediate risk of losing their access to education”. Israeli officials said school places in the Israeli system will be created for the pupils, but few details have been given. The organisation also provides health care, financial support and vocational training, among other services, which are also affected by the ban.
Palestinian human rights organisation Adalah, which is fighting the UNRWA ban in the Supreme Court, called for “urgent international intervention” after the school raids.
Israel’s police said its "officers were present solely to escort and ensure the safety of Education Ministry personnel as they carried out their official duties".
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Results
Catchweight 60kg: Mohammed Al Katheeri (UAE) beat Mostafa El Hamy (EGY) TKO round 3
Light Heavyweight: Ibrahim El Sawi (EGY) no contest Kevin Oumar (COM) Unintentional knee by Oumer
Catchweight 73kg: Yazid Chouchane (ALG) beat Ahmad Al Boussairy (KUW) Unanimous decision
Featherweight: Faris Khaleel Asha (JOR) beat Yousef Al Housani (UAE) TKO in round 2 through foot injury
Welterweight: Omar Hussein (JOR) beat Yassin Najid (MAR); Split decision
Middleweight: Yousri Belgaroui (TUN) beat Sallah Eddine Dekhissi (MAR); Round-1 TKO
Lightweight: Abdullah Mohammed Ali Musalim (UAE) beat Medhat Hussein (EGY); Triangle choke submission
Welterweight: Abdulla Al Bousheiri (KUW) beat Sofiane Oudina (ALG); Triangle choke Round-1
Lightweight: Mohammad Yahya (UAE) beat Saleem Al Bakri (JOR); Unanimous decision
Bantamweight: Ali Taleb (IRQ) beat Nawras Abzakh (JOR); TKO round-2
Catchweight 63kg: Rany Saadeh (PAL) beat Abdel Ali Hariri (MAR); Unanimous decision
