Gaza: Israel experiences discovery of Hamas tunnel beneath UNRWA headquarters | EUROtoday

Stand: 10.02.2024 | Reading time: 3 minutes

DThe Israeli army says it has found a Hamas tunnel that’s mentioned to run underneath the headquarters of the UN Palestinian reduction company UNRWA within the metropolis of Gaza. The underground passage was 700 meters lengthy, 18 meters deep and served as an vital facility for Hamas's army intelligence service, the army mentioned on Saturday night.

In the previous two weeks, the army additionally claims to have discovered giant portions of weapons and explosives within the headquarters of the UN group – which was deserted by UNRWA within the early phases of the conflict. In addition, there may be proof to counsel that workplaces and premises at UNRWA headquarters had been utilized by Hamas terrorists. There was no info as to when precisely this use happened, whether or not earlier than or after the beginning of the conflict. The info couldn’t initially be independently verified.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini mentioned in response to experiences of the tunnel's discovery that the company had no data of it. The UNRWA workers had already evacuated the headquarters on October twelfth on the orders of the Israeli army, he wrote on X on Saturday night.

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The group has not used it since then. Whenever a suspicious cavity was discovered close to or underneath the UNRWA web site prior to now, letters of protest had been instantly despatched to the events to the battle, Lazzarini wrote – together with each Hamas and the Israeli authorities. This was additionally included in annual experiences that had been offered to the overall assembly and printed.

UNRWA is a humanitarian group and has “neither the military and security expertise nor the capacity to militarily inspect what is or may be beneath its facilities,” he added. At the identical time, the Israeli authorities didn’t formally inform UNRWA concerning the alleged tunnel.

The assist group has not too long ago come underneath heavy criticism. At a US Congress listening to, the Swiss group UN-Watch listed that of the 13,000 UNRWA workers within the Gaza Strip, round 1,200 had been Hamas members and 6,000 had shut family within the terrorist group. Israel additionally accuses the help group of billions in assist cash and tons of assist ending up with Hamas, which used it to increase tunnels and arm itself.

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As a results of these experiences, greater than 10 international locations, together with the United States and Germany, the 2 primary donors, suspended their monetary assist to the UN company created in 1949 particularly for Palestinians. UN Secretary General António Guterres promised complete info. The collaboration with a number of workers has been terminated.

UNRWA additionally helps Palestinian refugees within the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria and their descendants. UNRWA operates greater than 700 colleges within the Middle East. It has lengthy been identified that many UNRWA colleges use textbooks that comprise anti-Semitic content material or reinforce the Palestinian martyr cult.