Jerusalem – Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon has harshly criticised the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), declaring that it is Hamas terrorists who run the agency in the Gaza Strip.
Danon's comments came after Israel's airstrike on the UNRWA Al-Jauni School in a Gaza refugee camp last week. “How long will the UN continue to turn a blind eye to reality and ignore the fact that Hamas terrorists have taken over UNRWA? Yesterday's (Wednesday's) IDF attack killed nine blood-stained terrorists, some of whom had participated in the brutal massacre on October 7th. If there is still any doubt, let me name the Hamas terrorists who were on the school grounds disguised as 'local UNRWA staff',” Danon asked.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the defunct school was being used as a command and control centre for Hamas.
Israeli Defense Minister: Dozens of UNRWA staff took part in Hamas October 7 massacre
A protester holds a flag outside UNRWA headquarters during a demonstration in Gaza in 2020. (Ahmed Zakot/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
In his X post, Danon named Hamas terrorists with ties to UNRWA, saying, “UNRWA Gaza is a terrorist organization whose members participated in the October 7th massacre, kidnapping and killing innocent Israeli civilians. It's time to shut down UNRWA.”
Last month, Fox News Digital reported that UNRWA had been forced to fire nine staff members over their alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre of about 1,200 people in southern Israel.
UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma told Fox News Digital that “Israeli authorities have not officially asked UNRWA to provide a list of staff killed in yesterday's attack on the UNRWA school. “She added that “the names included in today's Israeli military statement were not provided to us by the Israeli authorities prior to today.”
“We always find out about these very serious allegations in the media, after they have happened,” she complained. Schools in the Gaza Strip have been closed since Israel launched its war with Hamas in response to the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel.
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A United Nations vehicle enters the UNRWA offices in Jerusalem on April 2, 2024. (Photo: Yoav Dadkevich/TPS)
Fox News Digital asked the IDF about Tooma's comments. An IDF spokesman said, “From what I understand, it's clear who belongs to who in Gaza. I don't think this comes as a surprise to anyone at UNRWA at all. It's simply an attempt to argue and shift the blame.” The IDF spokesman stressed that the UNRWA spokesman's comments “distract from the important issue that terrorists are working for the organization and using UNRWA as a cover.”
Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, told Fox News Digital: “This was a precision strike targeting terrorists who had embedded their command and control centre in a former school building. The UN should condemn Hamas for using a civilian building for military purposes, which is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. Instead, the UN has rushed to blame Israel.”
Danny Danon, Israel's permanent member of the UN Security Council, spoke at a Security Council meeting at the council's New York headquarters. (Israeli Mission to the United Nations)
Testifying before Congress about the controversial agency, Neuer claimed, “UNRWA is deeply complicit with the Hamas terrorist organization. Their staff routinely celebrate terrorist attacks against Israelis and Jews. We have identified this in numerous reports, naming around 200 people. We then identified the head of the UNRWA teachers' union who is a senior Hamas official. Suhail al-Hindi, who has led the UNRWA teachers' union in Gaza for many years, is in the Hamas politburo along with Yahya Sinwar. Similarly, Fatih al-Sharif, head of the UNRWA teachers' union in Lebanon, is a senior Hamas terrorist and is documented on our website unwatch.org.”
He called on foreign governments to stop funding UNRWA: “It is time for Western countries, which donate more than $1 billion to UNRWA, to stop funding this terror-ridden institution. The Swiss parliament has rightly called for the suspension of funding and the complete abolition of UNRWA. We urge all other democracies, including the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan, to do the same.”
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored units launch an attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on May 15, 2024. (Photo by Mostafa Alharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)
UNRWA's Touma condemned the Swiss decision: “The Swiss lower house has voted to halt funding to UNRWA. It is incomprehensible that this should happen when UNRWA is at the forefront of the life-saving work in Gaza. Switzerland is known for championing humanitarian aid and playing a leading role in promoting international humanitarian law.”
Tooma added that “MPs who voted to phase out the mandated bodies of the UN General Assembly without offering the occupied Palestinian people a political alternative are once again on the wrong side of history.”
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The United States suspended funding to the UNRWA agency following the involvement of some of its staff in the massacre on October 7. President Biden had resumed aid to the controversial organization upon taking office following former President Donald Trump's decision in 2018 to cut funding to the organization.
