Israel Strikes Hamas, Islamic Jihad Squads Hiding in UNRWA School

Jerusalem, 6 June, 2024 (TPS) -- Israeli aircraft struck a compound inside a UN Relief and Works Agency school in Gaza where Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday morning.

The IDF said terrorists eliminated in the strike in the central Gaza area of Nuseirat included members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force who participated in the attacks of October 7.

“The terrorists directed terror from the area of the school while exploiting it and using it as a shelter. Several terrorists who planned to carry out terror attacks and promote terrorist activities against IDF troops in the immediate time frame were eliminated in the strike,” the IDF said.

“Before the strike, a number of steps were taken to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians during the strike, including conducting aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information,” the IDF added.

Hamas’s figures of civilian casualties could not be independently verified.

The strike came on the heels of a similar strike on Tuesday, in which Israeli jets hit a Hamas compound inside a UNRWA school in the central Gaza area of Bureij. And on May 30, Israeli soldiers raided a UNRWA school in Rafah from where Hamas fired anti-tank rockets. Soldiers discovered tunnel shafts and rockets inside the school.

Weapons and tunnel shafts have been found in UNRWA facilities on numerous other times. Israeli forces discovered a Hamas complex located directly under the UNRWA’s Gaza City headquarters. Computer servers belonging to Hamas were directly connected to UNRWA’s electricity system.

The embattled UNRWA is under fire amid revelations that its staffers participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks. Israeli officials demand that the agency be stripped of its authority in Gaza and defunded.

On May 30, the Knesset approved the first reading of legislation authorizing the Foreign Ministry to designate UNRWA as a terror organization and strip it of its diplomatic immunity, tax-exempt status, and other legal benefits. On the same day, the Israel Lands Authority ordered UNRWA to vacate its Jerusalem offices over violations of its lease.

Israel’s largest bank froze UNRWA’s account in February over suspicious financial transfers that the agency failed to adequately explain.

Palestinian refugees are the only refugee population with its own dedicated UN agency. The rest of the world’s refugees fall under the mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Israeli officials have called for UNRWA to be closed and for Palestinian refugees to be brought under the responsibility of the UNHCR.

At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 120 remaining hostages, more than 30 are believed dead.