A law banning the activities of UNRWA in the territory of Israel has been adopted
On October 28, the Knesset of Israel passed a law prohibiting the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) within Israel. According to the law, UNRWA’s operations in Israel will cease within 90 days. The decision was made due to evidence and facts of the agency’s staff’s direct involvement in the events of October 7, as well as the management’s policy of concealing the extent of HAMAS infiltration into UNRWA. This becomes particularly evident against the backdrop of the statement by the UN Deputy Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, who said in an interview with Sky News on February 14, 2024: “We do not consider HAMAS a terrorist group. It is a political movement.”
According to an official statement by the spokesperson of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, more than 2135 UNRWA employees in the Gaza Strip (out of 11,000) are members of either HAMAS or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and one-fifth of UNRWA school administrators are associated with HAMAS.
During military operations, a 700-meter-long underground tunnel was discovered beneath UNRWA’s main building in the Gaza Strip, which was used by HAMAS terrorists. The tunnel contained servers and other computer equipment connected to the UNRWA headquarters via fiber optic cables and electrical wires. The entrance to the tunnel was located near a school managed by the agency.
UNRWA’s head, Philippe Lazzarini, stated that he and his staff were unaware of the existence of the underground tunnel beneath the building. He noted that the office ceased operations on October 12, 2023, and since then, agency representatives have not been present there.
However, considering that the tunnel was built and equipped before the events of October 7, it is hard to believe that the UNRWA and UN leadership were unaware of its existence.
