The UN has launched two separate probes into UNRWA. (File)
Jerusalem:
The Israeli navy claimed on Saturday that that they had found a Hamas tunnel underneath the Gaza Metropolis headquarters of the UN Company for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
UNRWA stated in response that it had not operated from the bottom since October 12 — 5 days after Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel — and known as for an unbiased investigation.
Hamas has beforehand denied Israeli claims that it has dug an in depth community of tunnels underneath faculties, hospitals and different civilian infrastructure as cowl for its actions.
UNRWA is already underneath scrutiny after it sacked plenty of employees final month following Israeli allegations that they took half within the lethal October 7 assaults by Hamas.
The military and the Shin Guess safety company stated operations in Gaza Metropolis in current weeks had led to the invention of a ”tunnel shaft” close to a faculty operated by the humanitarian company.
”The shaft led to an underground terror tunnel that served as a big asset of Hamas’s navy intelligence and handed underneath the constructing that serves as UNRWA’s essential headquarters within the Gaza Strip,” they added in an announcement.
”Electrical infrastructure” within the tunnel — 700 metres (765 yards) lengthy and 18 metres underground — ”related” to the company’s HQ, ”indicating that UNRWA’s amenities provided the tunnel with electrical energy”, they stated.
Paperwork and a stash of weapons within the UN compound itself ”confirmed that the places of work had the truth is additionally been utilized by Hamas terrorists”, the joint assertion stated.
UNRWA stated its employees had been pressured to go away its Gaza Metropolis compound underneath instruction from Israeli forces as bombardment intensified within the space.
”Now we have not used that compound since we left it nor are we conscious of any exercise that will have taken place there,” it added.
The compound was final inspected in September 2023, an announcement stated.
Any suspicious exercise discovered close to or underneath any UNRWA premises was beforehand reported to the authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza and the Israelis, and likewise made public, it added.
The most recent claims ”benefit an unbiased inquiry that’s at present not doable to undertake given Gaza is an energetic warfare zone”, it went on.
”The Israeli authorities haven’t knowledgeable UNRWA formally in regards to the alleged tunnel.”
The UN has launched two separate probes into UNRWA, the primary into the Israeli claims of employees participation on October 7, and the opposite a assessment of its general political neutrality.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)