Gaza: Israel claims to have found a Hamas tunnel under UNRWA HQ

Europe 1 with AFP // Credits: AMIR LEVY / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP 8:23 p.m., February 10, 2024

The Israeli army and internal security agency said on Saturday they had discovered a tunnel of the Islamist movement Hamas under the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City. UNRWA, which Israel accuses of being "totally infiltrated by Hamas", for its part stressed that it has not occupied its HQ since October 12, five days after the unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil. , which sparked the war in Gaza, and called for an independent investigation.

According to the Israeli army and Shin Beth, military operations in Gaza City in recent weeks led to the discovery of a "tunnel entrance" near a school run by the UN humanitarian agency. For ten years, Hamas has dug numerous tunnels in the Gaza Strip, where its members are hiding, according to Israel. In October, a study by the Modern War Institute of the American Academy West Point identified 1,300 tunnels there, for more than 500 km of underground corridors.

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A 700 meter long tunnel 

"The entrance led to an underground terrorist tunnel that was an important asset for Hamas military intelligence and passed under the building that serves as UNRWA's main headquarters in the Gaza Strip," the Israeli army and the Ministry of Defense said in a statement. Shin Beth in a statement. "The electrical infrastructure" of the tunnel - 700 meters long and located 18 meters underground - "was connected" to the agency's headquarters, "indicating that Unrwa installations supplied the tunnel with electricity", according to them .

Documents and a stockpile of weapons in the UN compound “confirmed that the offices had also been used by Hamas terrorists,” they added. UNRWA responded that its staff had been forced to leave the headquarters on instructions from Israeli forces as bombing intensified in the region. “We have not used this building since we left it and we are not aware of any activity that may have taken place there,” she added. The building was last inspected in September 2023, she said in a statement.

Israel's accusations "merit an independent investigation, which is currently not possible given that Gaza is in an active war zone," the UN agency stressed. Israel recently accused UNRWA of having had 12 employees, out of 13,000 employees in the Gaza Strip, involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. He also assured last week that he would prove “UNRWA’s links with terrorism”.

An internal UN investigation is underway concerning the employees implicated by Israel, from which UNRWA has separated, and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appointed an independent commission to assess the "neutrality" of the agency.