Gaza: UNRWA denies knowing about tunnel under its headquarters and says it inspected its facilities

The commissioner of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, this Saturday denied any knowledge of a tunnel under its headquarters in Link and said the organization inspected the facilities a month before the Hamas attacks.

READ MORE | The Omnibus Law returns to the starting point: how Milei’s “defeat” in Congress was created and what comes next

He Israeli army today made new accusations, through a statement and a video, that fighters from the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas used offices at the UNRWA headquarters in northern Gaza for their operations and displayed weapons allegedly found inside.

He also indicated that a tunnel 700 meters long and 18 meters deep that passed under the headquarters of the UNRWA had its electrical infrastructure connected to the agency’s facilities.

Lazzarini said in a message on the social network X that the UN agency “did not know what was under its headquarters in Link”, who learned about the tunnel through the media and did not receive any official communication from the Israeli authorities.

LOOK HERE | The three options for Charles III if cancer prevented him from carrying out his royal duties

He adds that he cannot “confirm or comment” on this information because UNRWA staff left headquarters in Gaza on October 12when the shelling intensified, and has not used the facilities nor is aware of any activity there since then, other than the deployment of Israeli troops, according to media reports.

Lazzarini points out that although there was no “active conflict”, UNRWA inspected its facilities from the inside every quarter and that the last inspection of its facilities in Gaza “was completed in September 2023”, a month before the attacks that led to the ongoing conflict. conflict.

In any case, it highlights that the agency is a humanitarian organization that “does not have military or security competence or capacity carry out military inspections of what is, or could be, under its installations”, but it has had mechanisms to alert suspicions and has done so.

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED | The economy joins security as Bukele’s main challenges in his new term

“In the past, when suspicious cavities were found near or under UNRWA facilities, letters of protest were quickly sent to parties to the conflict, including the de facto authorities in Gaza (Hamas) and the Israeli authorities,” a matter that has been reported and published “consistently” in annual reports to the General Assembly.

Lazzarini finally stressed that the latest information deserves an independent investigation, but criticized that “it is not currently possible to do so given that Link “It’s an active war zone.”

In the video accompanying the Israeli Army’s military statement, the commander of the 401st Brigade Combat Team, Colonel Benny Aharon, states that Hamas took advantage of the “opportunity offered by the UNRWA”daily and during the war to attack the Israeli military and civilians.

READ HERE | The gang of Hispanic immigrants who commit violent cell phone robberies in New York using mopeds

Israel has already accused several UNRWA members of participating in the Hamas attacks on October 7, which led to the UN to order an investigation and led 18 countries – including the US, Japan, Germany and France – to announce the suspension of their contributions to the agency, which has guaranteed it will run out of funds before the end of the month.

According to this Saturday’s military note, “large quantities of weapons were found inside the building’s rooms, including shotguns, ammunition, grenades and explosives. Intelligence services and documents discovered in the offices of UNRWA officials confirmed that, in fact, the offices had also been used by terrorists from Hamas”.

Source: Elcomercio

jack

I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.