The Israeli military says troops have discovered a tunnel network hundreds of meters long that runs partly beneath UNRWA headquarters in Gaza. The army calls it new evidence of Hamas’s exploitation of the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees. UNRWA denies having any knowledge of the existence of the tunnels.
The military and the Shin Bet domestic security service say that in recent weeks “a tunnel shaft” was discovered near a school run by the humanitarian organization. The shaft would have led to the underground network of 700 meters long and 18 meters deep.
It is said to be an important part of Hamas’s military intelligence service. An office space was found, among other things, with steel safes that had been opened and emptied. In a joint statement, the military and security services said that documents and a cache of weapons in the UN complex itself confirmed “that the offices had also been used by members of Hamas.”
In a statement, UNRWA said it had left its headquarters five days after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas and was therefore “unable to confirm or otherwise comment on the Israeli finding.”
“UNRWA does not have the military and security expertise nor the capacity to conduct military inspections of what is or could be beneath its buildings,” the statement said. “We have not used that complex since we left it, nor are we aware of any activity that may have occurred there.” According to the statement, the complex was last checked in September last year.
Many countries have halted their funding of UNRWA in recent weeks following Israeli accusations that 12 of its staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas attack. The UN organization has tens of thousands of employees.
