West Bank education centre could close in days due to Israeli seizure threat, says UNRWA
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The Palestinian key of return on the entrance arch of the camp near an UNRWA centre, in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
PHOTO: REUTERS
GENEVA – A training centre for hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank could be closed within days by the Israeli authorities, jeopardising the education of students, the UN Palestinian refugee agency said on Jan 23.
The Kalandia Training Centre, which teaches 350 young male students from across the West Bank skills such as plumbing and vehicle maintenance, could be shut, as the land it sits on is at risk of expropriation by the Israeli authorities, UNRWA said.
“If the centre were to be forcibly closed – and we do fear that this could happen within days – there is no educational alternative for these students. So you’re depriving a large cohort of Palestine refugees of economic opportunities,” UNRWA spokesperson Jonathan Fowler told reporters in Geneva speaking via video link from Amman, Jordan.
“The right to education would be under attack there... The international community needs to wake up.”
A spokesperson for the Israeli government accused UNRWA of having links to the Hamas militant group
UNRWA has functioned for decades as the main international agency providing for the welfare of millions of Palestinian descendants of those who fled or were driven from homes during the war around Israel’s founding.
Israel accuses UNRWA of bias, and Israel’s Parliament passed a law in October 2024 banning the agency from operating in the country and prohibiting officials from having contact with it.
Israel demolished structures inside the agency’s East Jerusalem compound on Jan 20, a site it seized in 2025.
The agency’s chief Philippe Lazzarini said the demolition was the latest in a series of Israeli actions against UNRWA, including a raid on a medical clinic in January and a plan to cut power and water to UNRWA facilities in the coming weeks. REUTERS
