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| Hamas tunnels discovered beneath UNRWAʼs Gaza headquarters |
... Isreal Foreign Minister Katz calls for resignation of UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini
The Israeli military said its forces has discovered a Hamas tunnel that extends partly beneath the UNRWA central headquarters in Gaza.
Israeli army engineers, who called this further evidence of the presence of Hamas militants under the main Palestinian aid agency, took foreign media journalists through the tunnels.
VOA quoted the military, saying the tunnel was 700 meters long and 18 meters deep – bifurcated at times – and revealed side rooms. There was an office with steel safes that had been opened and emptied. There were tiled toilets. One large room was filled with computer servers, another with stacks of industrial batteries.
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| This photo, taken during a Feb. 8, 2024, media tour organized by the Israeli military, shows Israeli soldiers inside a tunnel that the army claims is a "Hamas command tunnel" under a compound of the UNRWA in Gaza City. |
According to a lieutenant colonel, Ido, the Hamas militants appeared to have evacuated as the Israel Defense Forces advanced.
“We know that they [the Hamas] have people working in UNRWA. We want every international organization to work in Gaza. That is not a problem. Our problem is the Hamas,” Ido told reporters.
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called for the resignation of UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini following the discovery of the tunnel.
In a post published on social media platform X, Katz rejected Lazzarini's claim that he was unaware of the tunnel's existence.
UNRWA, which responded to Katz, said it left the headquarters on October 12, five days after the terrorist attack. The statement stated that “UNRWA does not have the military and security expertise nor the capacity to undertake military inspections of what is or might be under its premises”.
As UNRWA, which is the primary agency delivering aid on the ground, continues to be embroiled in scandal; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told NPR that Israel has an obligation to keep civilians safe as Israeli forces prepares to escalate its military campaign on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.