Israel reported Saturday that the military found a network of Hamas tunnels beneath the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) and suggested there is no way the organization was unaware.
According to the statement issued by both the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA), Israeli forces were carrying out raids in northern Gaza when they discovered a 700-meter-long underground tunnel passing just below the main UNRWA building in Gaza.
“The shaft led to an underground terror tunnel that served as a significant asset of Hamas’ military intelligence and passed under the building that serves as UNRWA’s main headquarters in the Gaza Strip,” the military said.
During the operation, Israeli forces seized a “wide variety of intelligence assets” as well as a large quantity of weapons ranging from rifles and grenades to explosives. Additionally, they discovered that UNRWA headquarters supplied electricity to the Hamas tunnel and that the terrorists used the UN agency’s offices.
“The newly-found intelligence will allow the forces to operate against additional Hamas targets(...)The dismantling of the tunnel weakens Hamas’ intelligence capabilities,” the statement said.
These findings were found within @UNRWA facilities:
Acting on ISA intelligence, the forces discovered a tunnel shaft near an UNRWA school, leading to an underground terrorist tunnel beneath UNRWA's main headquarters. The forces found electrical infrastructure inside the tunnel… pic.twitter.com/n5EWJpyI4o
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 10, 2024
UNRWA’s alleged links to Hamas
This is not the first time information has come to light suggesting that UNRWA has links to the Gaza terrorist group.
Israel recently directly accused a dozen UNRWA workers of participating in the October 7 massacre. The document presented by Israel shared several pieces of evidence to support its accusation, including the location of mobile phones and messages with the terrorists, among others.
The United States suspends funding to UNRWA
Following the allegations, the US State Department decided to suspend funding to the agency while evaluating whether the accusations against UNRWA members were true.
A group of Republican senators had already warned of the United Nations agency’s links to terrorism based on numerous other pieces of evidence that have accumulated over the years, including a report revealing that more than a hundred Hamas terrorists earned their graduation degrees from schools run by UNRWA.
“As evidence continues to mount that UNRWA policies and school curricula cultivate anti-Israel extremism and encourage the operations of Hamas terrorists, it is unconscionable that the U.S. continues to fuel terrorism by supporting UNRWA,” said Republican Senator from Tennessee, Bill Hagerty, in December of last year.
UNRWA apologizes
In the wake of the allegations, the UN agency’s leaders have said they try to ensure that their thousands of employees respect neutrality standards, but that it can be extremely complicated. “Our employees are part of the social fabric of Gaza and its ecosystem. And as part of the social fabric in Gaza, there is also Hamas,” said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of UNRWA, in an interview with The New York Times.
- UNRWA did not know what is under its headquarters in Gaza.
- UNRWA is made aware of reports through the media regarding a tunnel under the UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza.
- UNRWA staff left its headquarters in Gaza City on 12 October following the Israeli evacuation orders and as…
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) February 10, 2024
However, Israeli army spokesman Nir Dinar refuted Lazzarini’s argument: "You have to be very naïve to think that the UNRWA personnel did not know what was happening under their feet,” especially considering that both tunnel construction and maintenance require surface assistance.
