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Unrwa chief denounces Israeli police's seizure of assets in Jerusalem compound <article data-history-node-id="432441" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/unrwa-chief-denounces-israeli-polices-seizure-assets-jerusalem-compound" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/unrwa-chief-denounces-israeli-polices-seizure-assets-jerusalem-compound" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Unrwa chief denounces Israeli police's seizure of assets in Jerusalem compound</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>The head of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees denounced Israel's seizure of assets from its compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday.</p> <p>"Today in the early morning, Israeli police accompanied by municipal officials forcibly entered the Unrwa compound in East Jerusalem", Philippe Lazzarini said on X.</p> <p>With trucks and forklifts, the authorities took "furniture, IT equipment and other property", and the compound's United Nations flag was replaced with an Israeli one, Lazzarini added.</p> <p>Lazzarini has been declared persona non grata by Israeli authorities, who banned Unrwa from operating inside the country early this year.</p> <p>Israeli police told AFP in a statement that the seizures were "carried out by the Jerusalem municipality as part of a debt-collection procedure".</p> <p>"Police are present to secure the municipality's activity," the statement said.</p> <p>But Roland Friedrich, Unrwa director for the West Bank and east Jerusalem, rejected that assessment.</p> <p>"There is no debt because the United Nations - and Unrwa is part of the United Nations and is a UN agency - is not required to pay any kind of taxes of that kind under international law and under the law that Israel itself has adopted," he said.</p> <p>Under a 1946 convention, the UN and its assets must not be taxed by host countries.</p> <p>The compound in occupied East Jerusalem has been empty of Unrwa staff since January, when the Israeli law banning its operations took effect.</p> <p>"Whatever action taken domestically, the compound retains its status as a UN premises, immune from any form of interference," Lazzarini said.</p> </div> </div> </article> https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/unrwa-chief-denounces-israeli-polices-seizure-assets-jerusalem-compound