Palestinian fighters from the armed wing of Hamas participate in a military parade commemorating the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel near the border in the central Gaza Strip, July 19, 2023.Reuters/Ibrahim Abu Mustafa
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday that Israeli warplanes attacked a Hamas command center inside a school in the Gaza Strip run by the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees.
“The attack was carefully planned and carried out using precise munitions, avoiding as much harm to civilians as possible,” the military said in a statement, adding that the operation was provided by the Shin Bet security services and the military. He added that this was done thanks to the “accurate information” he received. Information Directorate.
The IDF and Shin Bet said the operations room was being used by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, to plan attacks against Israeli forces operating in central Gaza.
The IDF said the strikes killed more than 15 terrorist operatives, including 10 Hamas fighters. The military noted that the death toll also includes members of Hamas’ elite Nukba unit, which took part in the terrorist group’s October 7 massacre across southern Israel.
As a core part of its military strategy, Hamas terrorists infiltrate the civilian population of Gaza, seize civilian facilities such as hospitals, schools, and mosques to carry out operations and directly attack Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces also said on Tuesday that terrorists were seen inside UNRWA’s central logistics facility in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Saturday alongside a UN vehicle.
In the footage, several terrorists and gunshots can be seen near a UN vehicle and inside a UNRWA logistics warehouse.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), an arm of the international organization dedicated exclusively to Palestinian refugees and their descendants who fled during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, has been embroiled in controversy for several months.
Israel claimed in January that 12 UNRWA personnel were involved in the October 7 terrorist attack, assisted in the kidnapping of Israelis on the same day, and had other close ties to Hamas. Israel has announced that a UNRWA employee, a mathematics teacher, is a Hamas operative who helped kidnap an Israeli soldier from Beeri in southern Israel on October 7 and helped transport Hamas weapons and trucks. . Israel said the math teacher held a “logistical support position” in Hamas’s Deliverance Battalion, was involved in “receiving and detaining hostages” and was “seen photographing female hostages.” .
The United Nations is investigating the allegations in an ongoing investigation. A UN spokesperson announced last month that one case had been closed due to lack of evidence and four others had been put on hold.
As a result of the accusations, approximately 15 countries suspended funding to UNRWA, although some have since resumed funding the agency. In recent months, the United Nations has received information about seven additional UNRWA personnel allegedly involved in the October 7 attack. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also said that 1,468 UNRWA employees are “known to be active” as members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terrorist organization based in Gaza, including 185. claimed to be “acting in the military wing of Hamas.”
UNRWA has also been accused of inciting anti-Semitism, terrorism and hatred against Israel in the textbooks it issues to Palestinian schools.
