According to sources from The Times of Israel, Reuters, and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), army engineers led foreign journalists through tunnels in the UNRWA compound.
The UNRWA headquarters is located in the city of Gaza, in the northern regions captured by Israeli forces at the outset of a four-month-long war against the ruling Islamist group Hamas, prompting hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee southward.
Reporters entered a shaft next to a school on the outskirts of the UN compound and descended into a concrete-lined tunnel. Guided by an army lieutenant colonel, they walked for twenty stifling minutes through narrow and occasionally winding passages, leading them beneath the UNRWA headquarters.
The tunnel, reportedly 700 meters long and 18 meters deep, branched off in places, forming side chambers. There was an office space with steel safes, which were found open and empty.
Additionally, there was a tiled bathroom. One large chamber was filled with computer servers, while another housed industrial battery packs.
Israeli military sources claim that electricity in the tunnel was supplied directly from the UN headquarters. The IDF considers this to have been one of Hamas’ central command centres for intelligence, from which they directed much of the fighting.
Hamas evacuated the premises and cut communication cables passing through the basement floor of the UNRWA headquarters.
Heavy Israeli bombardment and prolonged winter rains may have also played a role in the evacuation: several sections of the tunnel were filled with sand and knee-deep water.
In a statement, UNRWA reported that it vacated the headquarters on October 12th, five days after the start of the war, and therefore “cannot confirm or otherwise comment” on the Israeli discovery.
The UN has initiated an internal investigation, and a number of donor countries have frozen funding due to allegations by Israel last month that some of its employees are simultaneously Hamas militants.
Palestinians have accused Israel of fabricating information to smear UNRWA, which employs 13,000 people in the Gaza Strip and has been a lifeline for the aid-dependent population for many years.
The agency operates schools, primary health clinics, and other social services, as well as distributing aid, describing its activities as purely humanitarian.
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“UNRWA is totally infiltrated by Hamas.
“It has been in the service of Hamas and its schools, and in many other things. I say this with great regret because we hoped that there would be an objective and constructive body to offer aid.”
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