The government of Israel confirmed on Sunday that it had discovered a terrorist “Hamas command and control center” in a complex run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the U.N.’s agency for Palestinian issues.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Security Agency (ISA), or Shin Bet, issued a joint statement confirming an airstrike Subday on the facility, which they said intelligence confirmed was being used as “a staging ground for multiple attacks on IDF troops located in Gaza’s central corridor in recent weeks.”
The strike reportedly occurred shortly before Israeli officials confirmed that the country had begun dropping flyers to civilians in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, urging them to evacuate before a military operation against Hamas.
The Hamas terrorist organization has controlled Gaza since 2007. The current military operations against the terrorists are a response to an unprecedented siege of the Israeli homeland on October 7, 2023, in which terrorists invaded the country and engaged in rampant violence against civilians, including the killing of infants, widespread instances of gang-rape, torture, mass executions of entire families in their homes, and the desecration of corpses on camera, filmed and sometimes uploaded to the social media profiles of their victims. Hamas terrorists acted with especially wanton violence against women, the elderly, young children, and the disabled.
I visited this kibbutz, Kfar Aza, just last year. The commander who liberated it from Hamas control says they found the bodies of 40 babies.pic.twitter.com/Z7h0akwdvM
— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) October 10, 2023
In January, UNRWA acknowledged intelligence that found at least 12 of its employees directly participated in the atrocities, which resulted in the killing of approximately 1,200 people and abduction of an estimated 250 others. Leaked communications in an online group featuring thousands of UNRWA employees found that many celebrated the slaughter and openly prayed for the terrorists engaging in it.
Despite this, UNRWA insisted that its only objective in Gaza is to aid civilians, not Hamas, and that its operations are pivotal for the survival of the people of Gaza.
The IDF and Shin Bet accused UNRWA in a statement on Sunday of allowing Hamas to use a complex allegedly intended for humanitarian efforts to stage terror attacks against Israeli troops.
“Following precise IDF and ISA intelligence, IAF fighter jets struck a Hamas command and control center in the central Gaza Strip which served as central terrorist infrastructure,” the statement said. “The strike was carefully planned and carried out using precise munition in order to minimize harm to uninvolved civilians.”
“The command and control center was used as a staging ground for multiple attacks on IDF troops located in Gaza’s central corridor in recent weeks,” the agencies said. “Furthermore, the forward operations base was used to carry out attacks on humanitarian efforts, which aims to increase the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians.”
The IDF and Shin Bet added that Hamas used the location to distribute weapons to terrorists.
“The Hamas terrorist organization systematically exploits the civilian population and institutions as human shields for their terrorist activities against the State of Israel,” the agencies affirmed.
UNRWA has long operated as the closest thing to a functional government in Gaza, in charge of the education of children, the little health care available for residents, and some distribution of food and other aid. UNRWA’s education efforts have been particularly disastrous, as years of evidence has revealed UNRWA teachers using antisemitic, genocidal Islamist propaganda to indoctrinate Gazan children.
UNRWA funds these activities with money from governments. The top donor prior to the discovery that UNRWA officials participated in the October 7 attacks, which resulted in a suspension of funding, was the United States. According to the State Department, the administration of President Joe Biden donated nearly $700 million to UNRWA between 2021 and 2023.
“We’ve provided over $890 million for Palestinians, including over $680 in humanitarian assistance for refugees in the region through UNRWA … When Secretary Blinken was in Ramallah, he announced another $50 million in funding for UNRWA,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in February 2023.
President Donald Trump had suspended funding to UNRWA in 2018.
Hamas has for years used UNRWA facilities, as well as other presumably civilian locations such as schools and hospitals, for terrorist activity. In February, the IDF revealed the discovery of a sprawling Hamas tunnel under a UNRWA facility including a school and the agency’s main Gaza headquarters.
“The forces found electrical infrastructure inside the tunnel connected to UNRWA’s main HQ, suggesting it was supplying the tunnel with electricity—generated by the fuel provided through humanitarian aid,” the IDF explained in a public release accompanied by photos and video. “Intelligence and documents found confirmed the offices’ use by Hamas terrorists. Large quantities of weapons, including rifles, ammunition, grenades and explosives, were uncovered hidden in the building’s offices.”
These findings were found within @UNRWA facilities:
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 10, 2024
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 electrical infrastructure inside the tunnel… pic.twitter.com/n5EWJpyI4o
In March, the Israeli government accused UNRWA of giving Hamas access to pivotal humanitarian aid, using Hamas terrorists to “protect” aid trucks.
“UNRWA has been relying on Hamas for the protection of aid convoys,” Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said.
Hamas terrorists reportedly seize humanitarian aid to sell to civilians at a premium on the black market, fundraising for its terror activities and condemning the poorest among Gazans to starvation.
In addition to collaboration with Hamas, Israeli intelligence discovered in January that at least 12 UNRWA staffers directly participated in the October 7 atrocities – ten of them with Hamas and two of them with the fellow Palestinian terror group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). UNRWA initially acknowledged the report, announcing it would suspend the staffers immediately, but shortly thereafter complained that the allegations were an Israeli attempt to “undermine” the organization.
“The allegation seems to remain [an] allegation, even when we talk about the 12 staff who allegedly have participated [in] the massacre of October 7,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in February during an interview on CNN.
“The problem today is that most of the allegations that we hear, and there are so many about UNRWA, are just allegation[s] which are shared, either through social media or through journalists,” he complained, “but none of them are shared with the United Nation[s], and none of them, to the best of my knowledge, are also shared with the member states.”
UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma suggested that same month that the agency would do nothing to address its infiltration by terrorists until after Israel’s self-defense operations against Hamas ended.
“We should — there should be more efforts exerted on the Israeli authorities to allow us to do our work, UNRWA and other U.N. agencies. And when the war is over, then it might be a different discussion,” she insisted.
Touma announced on Tuesday that UNRWA did not intend to abide by the IDF evacuation order issued on Monday in Rafah.
“UNRWA will not take part in any forced evacuation of the population in Rafah or elsewhere in Gaza,” she said. “We are committed to staying and delivering humanitarian assistance.”
