Gaza: Hamas tunnel found underneath courtyard of UNWRA school

(Gaza)  The conflict last month between Israel and Gaza saw Hamas launch around 4360+ missiles at Israel (with 680 of them landing inside Gaza) and the IDF striking1500+ targets resulting in 256 people killed inside Gaza. You know that Gaza which we are informed is one of the most densely populated areas in the world meaning  that the IDF had to strike approximately 5.8 targets in which to kill one person. Meaning that either the IDF are crap at their job, are using duff ammunition or they were hitting the right people.

Anyway Hamas and it s friends promoted this view that the IDF was carrying out a genocide, that women and children were dying in huge numbers and of course the liberal world rather than looking at the facts were more than happy to swallow what Hamas was promoting.  

The director of UNRWA in Gaza Matthias Schmale has been forced to leave the enclave in fear of his life after he stated that:

"I have the impression that there is a huge sophistication in the way the Israeli military struck over the last 11 days, so that's not my issue," Schmale said. He went onto say that “in comparison with the 2014 war, this time the strikes felt much more vicious in terms of their impact.”

First he was made to retract his statement , then he and a few others were forced to leave in fear of their lives  after Hamas made it quite clear his life was in danger if he remained . its as if Hamas dont like people to state the facts, such as how Israel has stated that they destroyed the media building in Gaza due to Hamas using it as a base in which to try and jam  the Israel Iron dome defence system. This is something Hamas has denied, just as they have denied they hide amongst civilians. Well ,the Hamas public disinformation department will have to pull its finger out as a huge tunnel has just been found running under UNRWA’s Zaitoun Preparatory Boys’ School in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood. 

KAN NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Photos of the tunnel shaft exposed under an UNRWA school yard in Gaza City. A hole in the ground, caused by either a missile or a missile shard, exposed the shaft of a tunnel dug by Hamas 7-8 meters under the school yard. pic.twitter.com/d0xbyZ8fLl

— Gal Berger גל ברגר (@galberger) June 10, 2021

The only problem here, whislt the western liberal media is more than happy to promote what Hamas has to say on any matter, when it comes to reporting their wrong doing, well then there simply is no story

Belgium, Netherlands to supplement UNRWA funds cut by U.S.

The same UNRWA that employs Hamas members who build tunnels under and store rockets in the UNRWA-run schools.

(JPost) The Netherlands and Belgium pledged a total of $38 million for the UN agency that provides aid to Palestinians following US funding cuts of $110 million.

Belgium’s government pledged $23.3 million in extra funding for UNRWA and the Dutch government said it would fast-track another $15 million in funding.

The United States announced its cuts on Thursday. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters that a $45 million payment pledged for the UNRWA food aid program would not go through for the time being. Earlier this week, the US said it would freeze $65 million pledged to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, transferring only $60 million.

According to UNRWA, the United States provided more than $350 million in aid to the organization in 2017.

 And here is the reason why:

In the Netherlands, International Aid Minister Sigrid Kaag, who used to work for UNRWA and is married to a Palestinian former Cabinet minister, said she would make available immediately her country’s annual budget of $15 million for UNRWA, which was planned to be dispensed in several payments.

Three lawmakers, including one from the ruling People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, submitted questions to Kaag in parliament this week about the decision.

“Why are you fast-tracking funding for UNRWA when there are so many potential groups with urgent needs?” they asked.

The only reason.

Israel has accused UNRWA institutions of harboring terrorist activities against Israel. In October, a Hamas tunnel was discovered under a UNRWA-run school in the Gaza Strip. Israel has also accused UNRWA teachers of using anti-Semitic and anti-Israel textbooks. And Israel has charged that UNRWA’s definition of refugee perpetuates Palestinian intransigence and suffering.

More...

Israel: Netanyahu calls for shuttiing down UNRWA after Hamas terror tunnel found running beneath two UNRWA schools

(WJD) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the time has come to shutter UNRWA, the U.N. agency that serves Palestinian refugees.

"The time has come to dismantle UNRWA and have its parts be integrated into the UN High Commission for Refugees," he told the weekly cabinet meeting.

He said he raised the issue with visiting American ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, saying the U.N. should "reexamine UNRWA’s continued existence."

Netanyahu's statement came in the wake of the discovery of a Hamas terror tunnel running beneath two UNRWA schools.

"Hamas uses schoolchildren as human shields. This is an enemy we have been fighting for many years and committing a double war crime: On the one hand, they deliberately attack innocent civilians, and on the other hand they also hide behind children," he told the cabinet.

UNRWA was founded in 1949 and was intended to be a temporary agency. Instead, it has become a massive social welfare organization that dominates much of the Palestinian economy and has been implicated in terrorism and incitement against Israelis and Jews in general.

UNRWA officially joins Pallywood

Left: UNRWA photo, Jan. 27. 2015, of girl in Syria
Right: Same UNRWA photo, May 29, 2017, but now she's "Aya from Gaza" oppressed by Israel pic.twitter.com/RwMJwwXvpM

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) June 2, 2017

Hamas Threatens UNRWA Over Budget Cuts

(INN) Senior members of Hamas have escalated their threats against UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), following UNRWA's announcement that it will have to reduce its services due to a lack of funding.

UNRWA is the largest organization belonging to the United Nations, with an operating budget of over a billion dollars per year. It provides health care, education, and other services to Palestinians. It is also the only UN organization dedicated to a specific group of refugees, and Palestinians are the only refugees who can inherit refugee status from their parents.

The organization is currently running on a deficit of $101 million. Without the extra money, it claims that it will be forced to delay the start of the coming school year.

Hamas organized large-scale demonstrations against the possible delay throughout Gaza. Participants waved banners criticizing the organization, calling for a "right of return" and threatening a "revolution of the refugee camps and anger."

The main protest was held in front of the UNRWA offices. During the demonstration, Mushir al-Masri, a senior member of Hamas, called the decision to delay the school yea "an open war against our people and our refugees, and a preparatory step towards removing the right of return to the homes from which we were evicted during the Nakba." The Nakba, meaning "disaster," is the term many Palestinians use for the creation of Israel.

Masri warned against adhering to the "stupid" restriction and warned that he would not be able to stop the anger on the streets. He further called for Islamic national forces and to Palestinians to come out in "revolution and rage against the decisions which hurt refugees."

Another senior Hamas official, Sa'ed al-Marazi, told the crowds, "We say to everyone, especially the UN Secretary-General: give us back our stolen homeland, and the Jews should return to wherever they came from. Your land is not here."

Al-Marazi also added his own threat, saying that "all the options are open" should UNRWA reduce its services.

Beautiful! Let them get angry, then, - or explore those other options.

Someone should pull the plug on UNRWA

(JPost) Israel is accused of shooting at United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) facilities in the Gaza Strip without making sufficient effort to avoid hurting innocent civilians encamped there. The Schabas-McGowan Davis report to be released on the 23rd of this month and soon to be leaked, will concentrate on proving these charges, while accusing the IDF of many more violations of international law.

Already, a strong report issued by NGO Monitor explores some of the many war crimes perpetrated by Hamas, which caused most of the civilian deaths in Gaza. Another report, issued by UN Watch, establishes and details the high moral standards governing IDF conduct in Gaza, which in many instances were far more exacting than international law requires.

The IDF has just issued another report, which is extremely well documented and reliably authenticated.

It demonstrates the utter falsehood of the biased charges.

The charges surrounding the shooting of UNRWA facilities mostly relate to the return of fire against attackers, and in one instance, a likely failed Hamas rocket which exploded in an UNRWA school yard.

UNRWA, for its part, has admitted that on three separate occasions its schools stored ammunition and rockets, claiming that this violated its policy of neutrality. It “corrected” the unfortunate violations by returning the ammunition to “local authorities.”

There can be little doubt about what these “local authorities” did with the ammunition and rockets given to them by UNRWA.

But it is interesting to ask who and what is this UNRWA which plays such a central role in the life of Gaza and of the terrorist organization Hamas. A comprehensive study on UNRWA has just been published by the Institute for Zionist Strategies.

UNRWA was created in 1948 to help the Palestinian refugees. After the end of WWII, there were millions of refugees and the UN had established an agency to help them. But because of the power of the Arab delegation, the UN set up a special agency to help Palestinian refugees. With malice aforethought, no definition of “refugee” was included in the founding enactment, so that UNRWA was able to establish its own criteria. While all over the world refugee status is personal and applies to those who fled or were evicted, UNRWA extends the definition to the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and to all those who follow. Thus the approximately 650,000-800,000 genuine Palestinian refugees, many if not most of whom have died, are currently counted by UNRWA to number around 5.5 million.

In addition, while the major UN refugee agency, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), considers it most humane and effective to resettle refugees in the land of their current residence and not seek to uproot them again nor to impose turmoil and resistance in their former countries of residence where new, ethnic-based nation states have been created, UNRWA accepted the Arab League’s dictates to define its goal as the return of all refugees and their progeny to their original place of residence – no matter how much time has elapsed and no matter what has taken place there in the interim.

While UNHCR considers itself a facilitator to help direct the funds given by members of the UN to host countries which are to provide the services and thus facilitate integration, UNRWA did the opposite. It quickly established a huge bureaucracy which takes the contributed funds and then operates its own programs of education, welfare, health, culture, legal representation and many others. UNRWA is a major government agency within Hamas-controlled Gaza. It may not be called a government, but it is precisely that.

It operates schools, medical facilities, cultural centers and activities, and provides welfare payments and services.

UNRWA employs over 26,000 workers, including 200 highly paid executives.

Can anyone doubt that it is in bed with Hamas? As far back as 2004, all of its governing council members were Hamas activists, and 23 of the 27 UNRWA labor union representatives were from Hamas.

Who, besides UNRWA, could so beneficently employ the rank-andfile minions who build, staff and administer the vast Hamas military infrastructure? In fact, an August 2014 FBI report found that many tens – perhaps hundreds – of UNRWA employees directly commit acts of terrorism.

Compared to the UNHCR, UNRWA spends four times more per capita for administration and has 30 times more employees per refugee. In total, it spends about $1.2 billion for the 5.5 million “refugees” it helps compared to the $2.3b. spent by the UNHCR for the 40 million refugees which it aids.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that the sooner a refugee integrates into society, the faster he becomes well adjusted and productive.

The UNHCR seeks to do just this. It believes that its connection with the refugee must be short-lived and not symbiotic. It seeks to integrate the client into the place of his current residence. It will therefore not employ the “client” refugee nor encourage him to focus on the past.

It helps the refugee based on current emotional and physical needs, not past grievances. It seeks to help the client move ahead and advance rather than wallow in what could or might have been.

UNRWA, of course, does just the opposite. It creates an identity of interest with the clients. It employs them as much as possible. Its schools emphasize and romanticize their past and the hardship their families suffered. They (and their progeny until eternity) are defined as permanent refugees. They are kept apart from the local population and the agency’s policies contribute mightily to local antipathy and bitterness.

UNRWA seeks to preserve and nurture the problem, not resolve it.

The IDF is falsely accused of recklessly harming civilians seeking refuge at UNRWA facilities. Though the biased Schabas-McGowan Davis report soon to be visited upon us will again regurgitate these conclusions, they have already been largely disproven.

UNRWA was originally created for a period of a little over a year, but its right to life has been renewed 65 times. Enough. UNRWA should be allowed to expire. Mankind would benefit greatly, including especially its Palestinian clients, whose lives it has ruined for generations.

Fun fact: More than 95% of today's UNRWA "refugees" were not even born when Israel was created in 1948

(Gatestone Institute) Here is a paradox: UNRWA, the United Nations agency that manages the Palestinian refugee issue, follows rules that contradict United States law and policy, and its practices result in perpetuating and multiplying the refugee problem rather than resolving it. Yet the U.S. Department of State gives unquestioning support to UNRWA's refugee designation rules[1], even on occasion defending them in detail. How can this be?

For example, almost two million Palestinians who have long been settled in Jordan and have for decades enjoyed Jordanian citizenship[2], are routinely counted as "refugees" by UNRWA, and the State Department supports it. This, in spite of the fact that, under U.S. law, a person who has citizenship in the country where he resides, and enjoys the protection of that state, cannot lawfully be eligible for refugee status.[3] How can State justify this contradiction?

Here is a second example: Another two million Palestinians already settled in the West Bank and Gaza, and who, by their own account, lived in the declared Palestinian state as its citizens under a Palestinian government, are registered as "refugees" by UNRWA.[4] By American legal standards, these Palestinians are "firmly settled" and therefore ineligible for "refugee" status[5]. Further, according to American policy reaffirmed by three Presidents, these Palestinians already reside in their own future state, the place where Palestinian refugees are meant to be settled.[6] Yet the State Department supports UNRWA's decision to count two million Palestinians well established in the West Bank and Gaza as "refugees," too.

Here is a third example: Under U.S. laws and regulations, only an individual who was personally displaced, or is a spouse or an underage dependent of such an individual, can be eligible for refugee status or derivative refugee status.[7]

Grandchildren and great-grandchildren are specifically not entitled to inherit refugee status merely because their ancestor was a refugee.[8] But under UNRWA practices, any descendant of a male refugee, no matter how many generations and decades have passed, is automatically entitled to be counted as a "refugee."[9] More than 95% of today's UNRWA "refugees," in fact, were not even alive when Israel was born in 1948; were never personally displaced by Israel's creation, and are listed by UNRWA as "refugees" only because of this peculiar practice of inheriting refugee status as a birthright .

Amazingly, the State Department defends all this, sometimes with great specificity. In response to critics of the descendancy principle, for example, the State Department recently reported, with approval, that UNRWA is not the only UN agency following this inheritance rule; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) occasionally does, as well.

More...

The UN’s refugee welfare racket

(FP) In the West, it’s known as welfare fraud. In the Palestinian Territories, it’s called refugee relief. In both places, the fraud can become a way of life, seen as an entitlement that children and then grandchildren adopt. Only in the Palestinian Territories, though, does the welfare agency see its goal as putting more people on welfare and keeping them there, the better to keep “the Palestinian refugee crisis” alive.

That welfare agency is called the United Nations Relief and Aid Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA as it’s commonly known. UNRWA doesn’t focus its efforts on resettling Palestinian refugees in foreign countries that would welcome them, as might be expected of a refugee agency, or even on resettling them in their own homeland when possible.

UNRWA doesn’t even limit its efforts to what most people, and all dictionaries, would consider “refugees” — in UNRWA’s books, a refugee can be just about anyone who wants to be one. As a result, the number of Palestinian “refugees,” rather than diminishing to nothing, has grown like topsy over the decades.

UNRWA didn’t always have a create-new-refugees mission. Founded in 1949 as a temporary organization to alleviate the plight of Palestinian refugees fleeing Israel, its laudable goal included emergency relief and “the economic integration of the refugees in host countries.” By funding nearby development projects that would employ the refugees, UNRWA intended to “make them self-sufficient to a point where their names could be deleted from the relief rolls.” UNWRA initially even culled its lists of fraudulent applications, thought to number in the tens of thousands, by people using false births and duplicate registrations with variations of their names.

But UNRWA’s goals soon changed, both because Arab states generally refused to accept the Palestinian refugees that would accompany the development projects and because many refugees themselves balked at being resettled.

UNRWA then morphed from a temporary organization into a permanent “huge welfare agency, prolonging its beneficiaries’ dependence instead of giving them tools to become self-sufficient,” according a report by James G. Lindsay, a former legal advisor and general counsel for UNRWA, who lamented “the agency’s funding of food rations to large numbers of refugees who were perfectly capable of providing for their own sustenance.”

To expand its reach, UNRWA redefined who would be eligible for welfare. Its definition of “refugee,” always a politically determined moving target, changed from its early version: “a person whose normal residence had been Palestine for a minimum of two years preceding the 1948 conflict and who, as a result, had lost both his home and means of livelihood.”

UNRWA decided to treat homeless Palestinians who hadn’t fled Israel as refugees. Then less needy Palestinians who hadn’t fled Israel and hadn’t even lost their homes received refugee status — Palestinians who had always lived outside Israel could now receive refugee status, even if they lived continuously in the same home they, their fathers and grandfathers had inhabited.

Then UNRWA expanded the definition of refugee to include needy nomadic Bedouins and Arab villagers who lived in Palestine but had used fields that became part of Israel, and to include needy urban residents of Palestine who had held jobs in Israel. UNRWA also counted some needy non-Palestinians in neighbouring Lebanon. Then UNRWA dropped the requirement to be needy. Also the requirement to have continuously resided in the Palestinian territories after the 1948 war with Israel — a Palestinian who had moved to Canada, decided after a few years he preferred Gaza, and then moved back could now have his refugee status, and entitlements, reinstated. Finally, UNRWA changed the definition of refugee to include the grandchildren and great grandchildren of refugees. Not surprisingly, the number of official refugees soared, from an original official estimate of 726,000 (unofficial estimates are as low as 500,000) to more than 5 million official UNRWA refugees today.

This expansion of the refugee rolls — overwhelmingly paid for by Western taxpayers — paralleled the politicization of UNRWA, which over the decades grew to be 99% staffed by Palestinians, its self-perpetuating bureaucracy of 30,000 employees running schools and hospitals, providing security services in the West Bank and Gaza to counter Israel, and becoming a government within a government in the Palestinian Territories.

Because keeping refugee numbers high became a political goal to help rally international condemnation of Israel while securing more aid, neither the Palestinian leadership nor UNRWA looked favourably on those who would lower the refugee rolls. When Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in 2000 and Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley in 2001 naively offered to resettle Palestinians in Canada, Palestinians responded by burning Manley in effigy in the West Bank. “If Canada is serious about resettlement, you could expect military attacks in Ottawa or Montreal,” said the head of a Fatah militia. “We reject any kind of settlement of refugees in Arab countries, or in Canada,” said the PLO.

The Palestinian “refugee crisis” — considered the most intractable problem preventing a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — is one that neither UNRWA nor its Palestinian confederates can countenance ending. They have a good racket going that will last as long as the West keeps bankrolling it.

UNRWA has not condemned Hamas' firing rockets from in and around its facilities

UNRWA has not condemned Hamas' firing rockets from in and around its facilities http://t.co/H4VVPikPln
— BrookeGoldstein (@GoldsteinBrooke) August 19, 2014

STOP GIVING US TAXPAYER $ to @unrwa it promotes terrorism ! http://t.co/H4VVPikPln
— BrookeGoldstein (@GoldsteinBrooke) August 19, 2014

US Senate wants UNRWA investigated over 'troubling' Gaza role

Finally.

WASHINGTON (JPost) — Members of the United States Senate are demanding an independent investigation into the role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency during Israel's most recent war in Gaza with Hamas.

Accusing UNRWA of maintaining active and extensive ties with Hamas— and of supporting its activities throughout the month-long war— Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote a letter this week to US Secretary of State John Kerry accusing the UN agency of bias and characterizing its role in the conflict as "troubling."

More...

The Jihad lessons being taught at UN Gaza Schools

ICYMI: The Jihad lessons being taught at UN Gaza Schools. #Lawfare Director @GoldsteinBrooke on #KellyFile http://t.co/zZ8owmeZ55
— The Lawfare Project (@LawfareProject) August 7, 2014

Booby-Traped Explosives Built into Walls of UNRWA Clinic

Over 80 kilogram of explosive material built into rigged UN-funded clinic; no response from UNRWA.

Puts an entirely new perspective on the UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness' crocodile tears, doesn't it?

(INN) New details have emerged about the booby-trapped clinic explosion that killed three IDF Maglan unit soldiers in Gaza earlier this week - Sergeant First Class Matan Gottlieb, 21, from Rishon LeZion; Sergeant First Class Omar Chai, 21, from Savion; and Sergeant First Class Guy Algranati, 20, of Tel Aviv, hy"d.

Over eighty kilograms of explosives were built into the UN-funded hospital's walls themselves, it was cleared for publication Thursday - revealing that the clinic itself was built to mask, and perform, potential acts of terror on the IDF.

Moreover, the clinic was built over tens of terror tunnels, according to the report.

The UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) has yet to respond to the revelations, and has still not responded to the deaths of the Israeli soldiers Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Hamas and Islamic Jihad rocket arsenals were found in a UNRWA school for the third time this month.

After the first finding of rockets at an UNRWA school, it was reported that rather than destroying the rockets, UNRWA workers called Hamas to come remove them.

While it would not comment on the deaths of the three soldiers, UNRWA was quick to place blame on Israel for a rocket strike on one of their schools in Gaza.

The UN agency also immediately blamed Israel for a strike on Gaza’s Shifa hospital, resulting in the deaths of over a dozen Gazans. It was later revealed that in all likelihood, a misfired Hamas Fajr-5 Iranian-made 100 kg warhead destined for Israel had struck the hospital.

UNRWA spokesman and Hamas terrorism enabler Chris Gunness' crocodile tears

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness loses his composure in an interview with Al-Jazeera Arabic.

After making a brief statement on the state of the Gazans, saying, “The rights of Palestinians, even their children, are wholesale denied, and it’s appalling,” Gunness pauses, clears his throat, says “my pleasure,” and proceeds to sob uncontrollably as the camera darts away.

It appears Gunness thought the interview had concluded.

If UNRWA wouldn't let Hamas store rockets on its premises and fire at Israel from its school yards, none of this would've happened.

'Israel has ample evidence that Hamas is using UNRWA schools for terrorist purposes'

(JPost) Israel has ample evidence that Hamas is using UNRWA schools and facilities for terrorist purposes, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzahi Hanegbi said Wednesday.

Speaking at a press briefing in Jerusalem, he pointed out that on three separate occasions UNRWA itself has admitted that rockets were hidden in the basement of their facilities. “Who knows how many were not found,” he said, adding that this phenomenon was “totally unacceptable.”

Each time that the rockets were found, he said, they were given back to Hamas and have probably already been fired at Israel, “endangering and jeopardizing Israeli lives.”

“Instead of blaming and condemning Israel, UNRWA should make a real effort to stop being manipulated and used by the terrorist organizations.”

While saying that over a span of decades UNRWA “has done a great job helping the Palestinians in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip,” especially giving “blessed refuge for people leaving combat areas to save themselves,” the organization has failed to prevent its facilities from being used as terror headquarters and a hiding place for rockets.

Health officials in Gaza said Wednesday that Israeli shelling killed at least 15 Palestinians sheltering in a UNRWA school in Gaza's biggest refugee camp on Wednesday.

Some 3,300 Palestinians, including many women and children, were taking refuge in the building in Jabalya refugee camp when it came under fire around dawn, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said.

"Our initial assessment is that it was Israeli artillery that hit our school," UNRWA chief Pierre Krahenbuhl said in a statement after representatives of the agency visited the scene and examined fragments, craters and other damage.

An IDF spokeswoman said militants had fired mortar bombs from the vicinity of the school and troops shot back in response. The incident was still being reviewed.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Booby-trapped terror tunnel found in UNRWA health clinic, Obama joins ant-Israel hate fest

Tunnel found in UNRWA health clinic

More details emerge on the booby-trapped tunnel uncovered in the southern Gaza Strip today:

An Israeli elite squad searching for tunnels near Khan Younis uncovers a booby-trapped opening in a small UNRWA health clinic.

The troops send in sniffing dogs and a small robot to minimize damage to the structure, but despite the precautionary measures, the explosives rigged to the tunnel are detonated, demolishing the building on top of the soldiers.

Earlier reports indicated that a number of soldiers were injured.

Brig. Gen. Micky Edelstein says militants have used more than a thousand IEDs so far, destroying thousands of buildings in the Gaza Strip.

For instance, he says, in sweeps of a single street of 28 buildings last night, 19 were found to be booby-trapped.

3 IDF soldiers killed in booby-trapped UNRWA clinic

Three IDF soldiers were killed on Wednesday in Gaza in an explosion at a booby-trapped UNRWA health clinic that housed the opening of a tunnel, the IDF’s Gaza Division commander, Brig. Gen. Micky Edelstein, said.

UN chief says attack on UNRWA school is ‘unjustifiable’

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemns an Israeli strike on a Gaza school that killed 16 people as “unjustifiable” Wednesday, calling for those responsible to be held to account.

“This morning a UN school sheltering thousands of Palestinian families suffered a reprehensible attack,” Ban says during a visit to Costa Rica.

“It is unjustifiable, and demands accountability and justice.”

Ban accuses the Israeli military of ignoring repeated communications on the location of the school.

“I want to make it clear that the exact location of this elementary school has been communicated to the Israeli military authorities 17 times, as recently as last night, just a few hours before this attack,” he says.

“They are aware of the coordinates and exact location of where these people are.”

Sorry, Ban Ki-moon, but when UNRWA is repeatedly found storing rockets and weapons on its premises, some of which are also appear to be booby-trapped, it makes itself a legitimate target for ant-terrorism strikes.

Washington condemns shelling of UNRWA school

The United States is condemning the shelling of a UN school in the Gaza Strip that was sheltering displaced Palestinians.

The US did not say who was responsible for shelling the school. Gaza officials say Israel shelled the school, killing 15 and wounding 90. The Israeli military says it fired back after soldiers were targeted by mortar rounds launched from the vicinity of the school.

White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan says the US is also “extremely concerned” that thousands of Palestinians aren’t safe in UN-designated shelters in Gaza.

Meehan says the US also condemns those responsible for hiding weapons in UN facilities in Gaza. She says the escalation shows the need for a ceasefire as soon as possible.

UNRWA again, for the third time, "finds" rockets in one of its schools

Third rocket cache found at UNRWA school

(Times of Israel) UNRWA, the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, says it’s found another rocket arsenal stashed at one of its schools in the central Gaza Strip. This latest find is the third case of arms discovered at a UN-run school since the outset of Operation Protective Edge.

The UN agency says the school was closed for the summer and not in use as a shelter.

Again?!? Are you effing kidding me?? MT @DanWilliams: @UNRWA says rockets found on Tuesday at one of its schools in central Gaza.
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) July 29, 2014

This is now THE THIRD TIME rockets have been found in an @UNRWA school in Gaza in the past two weeks alone. There are no words.
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) July 29, 2014

Valid question. MT @paynton: How come rockets are always found in empty UNRWA schools, when they're all bursting at the seams with refugees?
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) July 29, 2014

I'm not sure @UNRWA ever had any credibility among those of us who know anything at all about them, but whatever they may have had is gone.
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) July 29, 2014

Hey, @UNRWA: Y'know how, every time rockets (!) are found in one of your schools, you say you had no idea? Right, well, I don't believe you.
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) July 29, 2014