Hamas terrorists hid a top-secret intelligence center underneath the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) in Gaza that was uncovered by the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli military said on Saturday.
The Hamas intelligence center included an electrical room, industrial battery power banks, and a living space for the terrorists, The Times of Israel reported. The IDF’s discovery comes after revelations that at least a dozen of the agency’s workers were connected to Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, according to an Israeli intelligence dossier.
The controversial U.N. aid group — which says it is “committed to advancing the human development of Palestine refugees” — denied having any knowledge that Hamas was housing terrorists and a data center right underneath its feet, according to UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.
“UNRWA is made aware of reports through the media regarding a tunnel under the UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza,” Lazzarini said. “UNRWA staff left its headquarters in Gaza City on 12 October following the Israeli evacuation orders and as bombardment intensified in the area. We have not used that compound since we left it nor are we aware of any activity that may have taken place there.”
The UNRWA commissioner-general added that the agency cannot confirm or comment on the reports that the “Israeli Army has deployed troops within the UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza City.”
The Times of Israel reported that interrogations of captured terrorists helped Israeli forces pinpoint Hamas’ subterranean intelligence center, which was finally located under the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City’s upscale Rimal neighborhood.
“The IDF was here previously, the first time was to destroy the enemy, but when we were here the last time we collected a lot of intelligence documents and findings, a lot of prisoners, and thanks to this we reached here. Now we carried out a targeted operation to take this capability away,” said Col. Benny Aharon, the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade, while giving a media tour of the newly discovered tunnel.
“We had a basis of information, but not enough to be able to dig down 20 meters and find it, we needed a bit more. There’s information we get from prisoners we capture, from computers we find, from documents, maps,” he said.
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After it was reported that 12 UNRWA employees were tied to Hamas’ brutal 10/7 attack on Israel, at least nine countries and the European Union suspended or cut back funding for the agency, which prompted U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to plead with countries to continue supporting the UNRWA.
“[Two] million civilians in Gaza depend on critical aid from UNRWA for daily survival but UNRWA’s current funding will not allow it to meet all requirements to support them in February,” Guterres said in a statement. “While I understand their concerns – I was myself horrified by these accusations – I strongly appeal to the governments that have suspended their contributions to, at least, guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s operations.”