30,000 refugees set to lose edn, healthcare

JERUSALEM, Jan 28 (Reuters): Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem were set to lose education, healthcare and other services provided by UN agency UNRWA as an Israeli ban on the organisation takes effect on Thursday.

Israel's government ordered UNRWA to vacate its East Jerusalem compound and cease operations under a law passed last year outlawing the agency and prohibiting Israeli authorities from having contact with it.

At UNRWA's offices in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, workers were packing boxes and loading portable buildings onto a truck on Monday.

"It's an unacceptable decision," said Jonathan Fowler, a spokesperson for UNRWA, formally titled the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

"The people that we serve ... we are not able to tell them what is going to happen to our services as of the end of this week."

Israel has not announced provisions for replacing UNRWA's activities, and the Israeli prime minister's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

UNRWA has for decades run schools and clinics in East Jerusalem, the eastern part of the city that Israel has occupied since a 1967 war, for tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees who have no nationality.

"We have everything here for us. When I heard that it will close, I was very sad because here is a place for people in need and for people who don't have money to pay for medication," refugee Sara Saeed said at the UNRWA medical centre in Jerusalem's Old City.

Medical centre Director Hamza Al Jibrini said the facility serves 30,000 refugees. Among them are patients with diabetes and high blood pressure, pregnant women and children who receive vaccinations, said head of nursing Manal AlKhayat.

"Where they will go?" she asked.

Israel's ban only directly covers Israeli territory, which Israel considers East Jerusalem to be.