Work begins to convert former UNRWA HQ into IDF site

Work began on Sunday morning to convert the former Jerusalem headquarters of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees into an Israel Defense Forces recruitment office and museum, according to Deputy Mayor Arieh King.

“Good news for lovers of Jerusalem,” King wrote in a post on X. “This morning, work began to prepare the former UNRWA headquarters in Ma’alot Dafna for use by the IDF as a recruitment office and IDF Museum.”

בשורה משמחת לאוהבי ירושלים.
ההבטחה שלנו , של סיעת “מאוחדים” ב @Jlm_city לפנות את אונר”א מירושלים, ממשיכה להתממש.
הבוקר החלו העבודות להכשרת מטה @UNRWA לשעבר במעלות דפנה, לשימוש @idfonline כלשכת גיוס ומוזיאון צה”ל. pic.twitter.com/R9vCM2nwTn

— אריה קינג Arieh King (@arieh_king) October 18, 2026

JNS reported in May that the military’s Jerusalem recruitment center, currently located in the Romema neighborhood, was expected to move to the former UNRWA compound, which would also house the planned museum. A bureau for the defense minister was also planned for the site.

In May 2024, the Israel Land Authority ordered UNRWA to vacate approximately 36 dunams—8.9 acres—in the Ma’alot Dafna neighborhood within 30 days, saying the agency occupied the state-owned land without its consent. The authority also demanded 27 million shekels (about $7 million) in retroactive compensation.

On Oct. 28, 2024, the Knesset passed laws banning UNRWA from operating in Israel following the exposure of its complicity in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and despite pressure from the United States and other countries against the move.

The legislation came into effect on Jan. 30, 2025, prompting the immediate closure of the agency’s main offices in northeastern Jerusalem’s Ma’alot Dafna and Kafr Aqab neighborhoods.

Israeli authorities began demolishing UNRWA’s headquarters in January.