Israel Uses UNRWA Health Centers As Detention Centers

Israeli Military/DOK Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

JAKARTA - Israeli forces turned a health center belonging to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in the southern West Bank into a place of detention, which violates international law.

UNRWA declared Israeli forces using the UNRWA Arroub Camp Health Center (near Bethlehem) as a temporary detention site during search and arrest operations on February 12.

Israeli forces entered the health center forcibly and used it to detain and interrogate dozens of Palestinians arrested in the camp, the agency added.

UNRWA noted that the incident was a new development in blatant neglect of the immunity of UN facilities.

They said the latest incident was part of a forced entry into the UNRWA installation in the West Bank that had occurred since October 2023, both by Israeli security forces and Palestinian armed groups.

The agency also confirmed that since January 30 and the implementation of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) law, including contactless policies between UNRWA and Israeli authorities, they could no longer be in contact with Israeli officials and directly report and resolve conflicts such as when the incident occurred.

Reported by ANTARA from Anadolu, Friday, February 14, UNRWA emphasized that all UN places are uninterrupt and protected under international law.

In October, Israel's parliament passed two laws calling for the termination of UNRWA operations in Israel and occupied Palestinian territories and prohibiting Israeli authorities from contacting the agency. The law came into force on January 30.

The latest incident comes amid massive attacks by Israeli soldiers in Jenin and Tulkarem in the northern West Bank which began on January 21, and has so far killed more than 30 people, thousands displaced, and caused widespread destruction.

Israel's escalation in the West Bank comes after a ceasefire and prisoner swap deal in Gaza on January 19, after more than 15 months of Israeli bombings that have killed more than 48,200 Palestinians and damaged the enclave.

Since the war began on October 7, 2023, Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 912 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

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