Israel Strikes Hamas War Room Set Up in UNRWA School, Kills At Least 15 Terrorists: IDF
Israeli fighter jets struck a Hamas command center embedded in a school in Gaza run by the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday.
“The strike was carefully planned and carried out using precise munitions while avoiding harming civilians as much as possible,” the military said in a statement, adding that the operation came about due to “accurate intelligence” provided by the Shin Bet security agency and Military Intelligence Directorate.
The IDF and Shin Bet said the war room was used by Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip, to plan attacks against Israeli troops operating in central Gaza.
More than 15 terrorist operatives, including 10 Hamas fighters, were killed in the strike, according to the IDF. The death toll included members of Hamas’ elite Nukhba force who participated in the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, the military noted.
As a core part of their military strategy, Hamas terrorists embed themselves within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeer civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks against Israel.
The IDF also revealed on Tuesday that in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Saturday, terrorists were identified in UNRWA’s central logistics compound alongside UN vehicles.
In the footage, several terrorists and gunfire can be seen near UN vehicles and in the area of UNRWA’s logistics warehouse compound.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — the global organization’s agency dedicated solely to the refugees and descendants of Palestinians who fled during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence — has been embroiled in controversy for months.
In January, Israel alleged that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, assisted in kidnapping Israelis that day, and had other close ties to Hamas. Israel said one UNRWA employee, a math teacher, was a Hamas operative who helped kidnap an Israeli soldier from Be’eri in southern Israel on Oct. 7 and assisted in the transfer of Hamas weapons and trucks. Israel said the math teacher had a “logistical position” in Hamas’ Deir el-Balah battalion, was involved in “receiving and holding hostages,” and was “seen photographing a female hostage.”
The UN has been probing the allegations in an ongoing investigation. Last month, a UN spokesperson said that one case had been closed and four others suspended, citing a lack of evidence.
As a result of the accusations, roughly 15 countries suspended funding to UNRWA, but some have since resumed their financial support for the agency. In recent months, the UN received information about seven more UNRWA employees allegedly involved in the Oct. 7 attacks. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also alleged that 1,468 UNRWA workers “are known to be active” members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terrorist group based in Gaza, and that 185 of them are “active in the military branches of Hamas.”
UNRWA has also been accused of inciting antisemitism, terrorism, and hatred of Israel in the textbooks it issues to Palestinians schools.
Source » algemeiner.com
