JERUSALEM, Undefined — The Israeli army claimed on Saturday that that they had found a Hamas tunnel below 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 referred to as for an impartial investigation.
Hamas has beforehand denied Israeli claims that it has dug an in depth community of tunnels below colleges, hospitals and different civilian infrastructure as cowl for its actions.
UNRWA is already below 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 Wager safety company stated operations in Gaza Metropolis in current weeks had led to the invention of a “tunnel shaft” close to a college operated by the humanitarian company.
“The shaft led to an underground terror tunnel that served as a major asset of Hamas’s army intelligence and handed below the constructing that serves as UNRWA’s foremost headquarters within the Gaza Strip,” they added in a press release.
“Electrical infrastructure” within the tunnel — 700 meters (765 yards) lengthy and 18 meters underground — “linked” to the company’s HQ, “indicating that UNRWA’s amenities equipped 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 have been pressured to go away its Gaza Metropolis compound below 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 which will have taken place there,” it added.
The compound was final inspected in September 2023, a press release stated.
Any suspicious exercise discovered close to or below any UNRWA premises was beforehand reported to the authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza and the Israelis, and likewise made public, it added.
The newest claims “advantage an impartial inquiry that’s presently not attainable to undertake given Gaza is an energetic warfare zone”, it went on.
READ: UN says Gaza warfare ‘staining humanity’ on eve of one hundredth day
“The Israeli authorities haven’t knowledgeable UNRWA formally in regards to the alleged tunnel.”
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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 evaluate of its general political neutrality.
