A student and a teacher carry study material at UNRWA Girls School run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in the Shuafat Refugee Camp in east Jerusalem, Thursday, May 8, 2025. After Israeli forces ordered the closure of six of its schools in east Jerusalem Thursday. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
A student and a teacher carry study material at UNRWA School run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in the Shuafat Refugee Camp in east Jerusalem, Thursday, May 8, 2025. After Israeli forces ordered the closure of six of its schools in east Jerusalem Thursday. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Students stand outside of UNRWA Girls School run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in the Shuafat Refugee Camp in east Jerusalem, Thursday, May 8, 2025. After Israeli forces ordered the closure of six of its schools in east Jerusalem Thursday. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Students walk out of UNRWA Girls School run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in the Shuafat Refugee Camp in east Jerusalem, Thursday, May 8, 2025. After Israeli forces ordered the closure of six of its schools in east Jerusalem Thursday. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Israel closes 6 UN schools for Palestinians in east Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel permanently closed six U.N. schools in east Jerusalem on Thursday, forcing Palestinian students to leave early and throwing the education of more than 800 others into question.
A student and a teacher carry study material at UNRWA Girls School run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in the Shuafat Refugee Camp in east Jerusalem, Thursday, May 8, 2025. After Israeli forces ordered the closure of six of its schools in east Jerusalem Thursday. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel permanently closed six U.N. schools in east Jerusalem on Thursday, forcing Palestinian students to leave early and throwing the education of more than 800 others into question.
Last month, heavily armed Israeli police and Education Ministry officials to close within 30 days, which ended on Wednesday. The United Nations , runs the six schools. UNRWA also runs schools in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which continue to operate.
The closure orders come after Israel banned UNRWA earlier this year, the culmination of a long campaign against the agency that intensified following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel that ignited the war in Gaza. Israel claims that UNRWA schools teach antisemitic content and anti-Israel sentiment, which UNRWA denies.
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UNRWA is the and health care to , which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city its unified capital.
The Israeli Ministry of Education says it will place the students into other Jerusalem schools. But parents, teachers and administrators caution that closing the main schools in east Jerusalem will force their children to go through crowded and dangerous checkpoints daily, and some do not have the correct permits to pass through.
In a previous statement to The Associated Press, the Ministry of Education said it was closing the schools because they were operating without a license. UNRWA administrators pledged to keep the schools open for as long as possible.
