The Israel Land Authority (ATI) informed the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) that must vacate premises at its headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem within 30 daysafter the approval of a demand presented by Israel’s Housing Minister, ultra-Orthodox Yitzhak Goldknopf.

In a letter sent to UNRWA on Tuesday, ATI wrote that IThe agency’s debt amounts to more than 27 million shekels (about 7 million euros). for operating on Israeli-owned land “without consent for the past seven years,” Hebrew media reported.

Minister Goldknopf said that the measure, which he himself first requested in February from ATI, received the green light from his ministry’s legal counsel.

In addition, he instructed the department “must immediately cease any illegal use, destroy everything you have built in violation of the law, clear the land of any people or objects and return it to ATI within 30 days from the date of the letter.”

“If you do not comply, ATI reserves the right to respond by all legal means and you will be required to bear the costs that this entails. No further warnings will be sent.” adds a letter.

According to the Israeli press, ATI turned a blind eye to UNRWA’s violation of the terms of the agreement under which it leased the land, But the situation changed after the war in the Gaza Strip and Israeli claims that the agency was infiltrated by Hamas and that several of its employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attacks.

In fact, Goldknopf, leader of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, accused UNRWA of “acting in the service of Hamas” and even participated in the brutal massacre of October 7.”

UNRWA, created to care for Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced from their homes during the 1948 war that followed the creation of Israel, has long been the target of Israeli hostility.

Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA was on Israel’s radar it has accused a dozen agency employees of participating in the October 7 Hamas attacks and claims that more than two hundred of its employees have ties to Islamists; and does not hide his intention to close it.

In recent weeks, extremist Israelis UNRWA headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem comes under attack forcing the agency to temporarily close its headquarters on several occasions.

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These accusations forced many donor countries will cut funding to UNRWA last January, although most resumed it before lack of convincing evidence presented by Israel.

(EFE)