The commissioner of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, denied this Saturday any knowledge of a tunnel under its Gaza headquarters and said the organization inspected the facilities a month before the Hamas attacks.
(You can read: Netanyahu asks the Israeli army for a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah, southern Gaza)
The Israeli Army made new accusations this Saturday, through a statement and a video, that fighters from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas used offices at the UNRWA headquarters in northern Gaza for their operations and showed weapons supposedly found inside.
He also indicated that A tunnel 700 meters long and 18 meters deep that passed under UNRWA headquarters had its electrical infrastructure connected to the agency's facilities..
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Lazzarini said through a message on the social network about it by the Israeli authorities.
– 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
It adds that it cannot “confirm or comment” on that information because UNRWA staff left the Gaza headquarters on October 12, when the shelling intensified, and has not used the facilities nor is he aware of any activity there sinceexcept for the deployment of Israeli troops, due to media references.
Lazzarini points out that while there was no “active conflict”, UNRWA inspected its facilities inside every quarter and that the last inspection of its facilities in Gaza “was completed in September 2023”, a month before the attacks that led to the ongoing conflict.
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In any case, it stands out that The agency is a humanitarian organization that “does not have military or security competence or the capacity to carry out military inspections of what is, or could be, under its facilities,” but it has had mechanisms to alert suspicions and has done so.
“In the past, when suspicious cavities were found near or under UNRWA facilities, letters of protest were quickly sent to the parties to the conflict, including the de facto authorities in Gaza (Hamas) and the Israeli authorities,” a matter that it was “consistently” reported and published in the annual reports to the General Assembly.
Official IDF Statement on the massive terror tunnel located underneath @UNRWA HQ in Gaza:
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… pic.twitter.com/KRjEpcdniJ
— Yaari Cohen (@YaariCohen) February 10, 2024
In the past, when suspicious cavities were found near or under UNRWA facilities, letters of protest were quickly sent to the parties to the conflict.
Lazzarini highlighted, finally, that The latest information deserves an independent investigation but he criticized that “it is not possible to do so currently given that Gaza is an active war zone.”.
In the video accompanying the Israeli Army's military statement, the commander of the 401st Brigade Combat Team, Colonel Benny Aharon, states that Hamas has used the “opportunity offered by UNRWA” daily and during the war to attack Israeli military and civilians.
(You can read: Netanyahu urges military pressure for 'total victory' in Gaza and not succumbing to Hamas)
Israel has already accused several UNRWA members of participating in the Hamas attacks of October 7, prompting the UN to order an investigation and prompting 18 countries – including the United States, Japan, Germany and France – to announce the suspension of their contributions to the agency, which has assured that it will run out of funds before the end of the month.
The UN is internally investigating the allegations against the employees, who were fired, and the organization's secretary general, Antonio Guterres, appointed an independent commission to evaluate the “neutrality” of the agency.
According to the military note this Saturday, “large quantities of weapons were found inside the rooms of the building, including rifles, ammunition, grenades and explosives. Intelligence services and documents discovered in the offices of UNRWA officials confirmed that, in fact, the offices had also been used by Hamas terrorists.”
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Palestinians flee the bombings.
What does Israel say?
The Israeli army and internal security service said this Saturday that they discovered a Hamas tunnel under the headquarters of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City.
According to the Israeli military and the Shin Bet, military operations in Gaza City in recent weeks led to the discovery of a “tunnel entrance” near a school run by the UN humanitarian agency.
The entrance led to an underground terrorist tunnel that was a major asset for Hamas military intelligence and ran beneath the building.
Over the past ten years, Hamas has dug a large number of tunnels in the Gaza Strip, where Israel claims its fighters hide.
(Keep reading: Economy in Gaza would not recover its 2022 levels until 2092, according to UN report)
In October, a study by the Modern War Institute at the American academy West Point identified 1,300 tunnels, covering more than 500 kilometers of underground corridors.
“The entrance led to an underground terrorist tunnel that was a major asset for Hamas military intelligence and passed beneath the building that serves as UNRWA's headquarters in the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli sources said in a statement.
One of the tunnels found in Gaza by Israel.
They also added that “UNRWA facilities supplied electricity to the tunnel”, which is 700 meters long and 18 meters underground, and that they found documents and weapons in the UN compound, which “confirms that the offices were also used by Hamas terrorists.
INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL
*With information from EFE and AFP
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