Israeli forces find explosives inside UNRWA bags in Gaza
Israeli soldiers found explosives inside UNRWA bags, and hidden weapon caches near a Gaza school compound, the Israel Defence Forces said on Thursday.
UNRWA sacks filled with sand lining a Hamas terror tunnel under Al Azhar University in central Gaza. Photo by TPS
The IDF said the explosives were intended to harm soldiers in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
During searches in the area of the school compound, troops found guns, explosives, vests and Hamas intelligence documents.
Hamas’s practice of using international aid for terrorist purposes has been reported multiple times since the start of the war on October 7.
In December, The Press Service of Israel first reported of Hamas’s use of UNRWA and USAID sacks to fortify terror tunnels under a university in central Gaza.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which supports Palestinian refugees, has been under fire for months. Israeli officials have demanded the agency be stripped of its authority in Gaza and defunded amid revelations that members of the agency’s staff participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks.
The Israeli government is bypassing UNRWA in distributing humanitarian aid.
More than 100 survivors of Hamas’s October 7 attacks filed a $1 billion lawsuit against UNRWA in June, accusing the agency of “aiding and abetting” the terror group. According to the suit, the lead plaintiff, 84-year-old Ditza Heiman of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was held captive for seven weeks in the home of a Palestinian man who said he was a UNRWA teacher at a boy’s school.
Israel’s largest bank froze UNRWA’s account in February over suspicious financial transfers that the agency failed to adequately explain. That same month, Israeli forces discovered a Hamas complex located directly under the UNRWA’s Gaza City headquartersand connected directly to the agency’s electricity system. The facility included numerous computer servers belonging to the terror group.
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee advanced legislation in July designating UNRWA as a “terror organization,” stripping the agency of its diplomatic immunity, tax-exempt status, and other legal benefits. The bill faces legislative hurdles, but is expected to pass.
Palestinian refugees are the only refugee population with its own dedicated.UN agency. The rest of the world’s refugees fall under the mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Israeli officials have called for UNRWA to be closed and for Palestinian refugees to be brought under the responsibility of the UNHCR.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 105 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
