This picture taken during a media tour organized by the Israeli army on February 8, 2024, shows Israeli soldiers inside an evacuated compound of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City.
Philippe Lazzarini says allegations should be probed, any other ‘suspicious’ activity reported to UN; COGAT says officials ignored information; Katz calls for agency chief’s ouster.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, denied Saturday any knowledge of a Hamas data center found by Israeli troops underneath its Gaza headquarters, with the Israeli military and Foreign Minister Israel Katz immediately casting doubt on his claim.
In a tweet shortly after the findings were published by The Times of Israel and other media organizations, Lazzarini said his organization, UNRWA, “did not know what is under its headquarters in Gaza” and that the reports “merit an independent inquiry that is currently not possible to undertake given Gaza is an active war zone.”
He said Israel has “not informed UNRWA officially about the alleged tunnel.”
The subterranean data center, seen by The Times of Israel’s military correspondent on Thursday during an Israel Defense Forces media tour, included an electricity room, industrial battery power banks, and living quarters for alleged Hamas terrorists operating the computer servers.
The allegation that Hamas was running a data center under UNRWA’s nose has added to growing concerns over the level of Hamas infiltration in the agency, which is already probing claims that at least a dozen staffers took part in Hamas’s October 7 killing spree across southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were killed in the massacre and another 253 kidnapped, over half of whom remain hostage in Gaza. Most of the atrocities carried out by Hamas on October were against civilians.
Jerusalem has long argued that UNRWA should be disbanded, and the recent allegations have led several donor countries to announce funding freezes, leading to concerns that the agency, which says it is the main conduit for aid for millions in the Strip amid the Israel-Hamas war, could stop operating in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East within weeks.
“Oh, you knew, ” Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, known by its acronym COGAT, tweeted at Lazzarini Saturday night, after the UN agency chief pleaded ignorance.
Lazzarini said UN staff had left the Gaza headquarters on October 12, as Israel’s military campaign in Gaza began ramping up in the wake of Hamas’s killing spree in southern Israel five days earlier.
“We have not used that compound since we left it nor are we aware of any activity that may have taken place there,” he claimed.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, denied Saturday any knowledge of a Hamas data center found by Israeli troops underneath its Gaza headquarters, with the Israeli military and Foreign Minister Israel Katz immediately casting doubt on his claim.
In a tweet shortly after the findings were published by The Times of Israel and other media organizations, Lazzarini said his organization, UNRWA, “did not know what is under its headquarters in Gaza” and that the reports “merit an independent inquiry that is currently not possible to undertake given Gaza is an active war zone.”
He said Israel has “not informed UNRWA officially about the alleged tunnel.”
The subterranean data center, seen by The Times of Israel’s military correspondent on Thursday during an Israel Defense Forces media tour, included an electricity room, industrial battery power banks, and living quarters for alleged Hamas terrorists operating the computer servers.
The allegation that Hamas was running a data center under UNRWA’s nose has added to growing concerns over the level of Hamas infiltration in the agency, which is already probing claims that at least a dozen staffers took part in Hamas’s October 7 killing spree across southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were killed in the massacre and another 253 kidnapped, over half of whom remain hostage in Gaza. Most of the atrocities carried out by Hamas on October were against civilians.
Jerusalem has long argued that UNRWA should be disbanded, and the recent allegations have led several donor countries to announce funding freezes, leading to concerns that the agency, which says it is the main conduit for aid for millions in the Strip amid the Israel-Hamas war, could stop operating in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East within weeks.
“Oh, you knew, ” Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, known by its acronym COGAT, tweeted at Lazzarini Saturday night, after the UN agency chief pleaded ignorance.
Lazzarini said UN staff had left the Gaza headquarters on October 12, as Israel’s military campaign in Gaza began ramping up in the wake of Hamas’s killing spree in southern Israel five days earlier.
“We have not used that compound since we left it nor are we aware of any activity that may have taken place there,” he claimed.