The main United Nations aid agency for Palestinians temporarily closed its headquarters in East Jerusalem after Israeli locals set fire to areas at the edge of the sprawling compound, the agency said Thursday.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNWRA, said in a post on the social media platform X that he had decided to close the compound until “proper security” was restored.

He said Thursday’s incident was the second in less than a week.

“This is an outrageous development. Once again, the lives of UN staff were at a serious risk,” he said.

Lazzarini described how “a crowd accompanied by armed men were witnessed outside the compound chanting ‘Burn down the United Nations’.”

At the time, UNRWA and staff from other UN agencies were in the compound, which contains fuel stations for a fleet of UN cars.

“While there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive damage to the outdoor areas,” Lazzarini said, adding that UNRWA staff had put out the fire themselves.

In footage shared with Lazzarini’s post, smoke can be seen rising near buildings at the edge of the compound while the sound of chanting in Hebrew can be heard.

UNRWA, set up to deal with the Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced from their homes during the 1948 war around the time of Israel’s creation, has long been a target of Israeli hostility. Calls for it to be shuttered have risen since the agency reported that around a dozen staffers had taken part in the October 7 atrocities, citing Israeli intelligence. The revelation, accompanied by Israeli claims that thousands more staffers have ties to terror groups, re-energized protests against the agency as donors pulled back funding.

An independent review group of UNRWA, led by French former foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” but said Israel had yet to provide evidence for its allegation of widespread links to Hamas and other terror groups.

Lazzarini said Thursday’s attack came after two months of “Israeli extremists staging protests outside the UNRWA compound,” adding that one protest earlier this week “became violent when demonstrators threw stones at UN staff and at the buildings of the compound.”

“Our compound has been seriously vandalised and damaged. On several occasions, Israeli extremists threatened our staff with guns,” he charged.

“It is the responsibility of the State of Israel as an occupying power to ensure that United Nations personnel and facilities are protected at all times,” he added.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli police.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the arson attack and urged the international community to take “strict measures” against Israeli “militias.”

Jordan also decried the attack, calling for measures to force Israel to “assume its responsibility as the occupying power in Jerusalem” and put an end to the harassment, according to the official news agency Petra.

Qatar’s foreign ministry slammed the “systematic Israeli targeting of UNRWA,” maintaining it aimed “to liquidate it and deprive millions of Palestinians of its necessary services”.

Saudi Arabia also condemned the attack.

Created in 1949, the agency employs around 30,000 people in the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It has coordinated nearly all aid to Gaza during Israel’s war on Hamas.