(JNS) The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the U.N. agency mainly responsible for education and social services in the Gaza Strip, employed Hamas members, The New York Times confirmed on Saturday, almost a year after it was first revealed by Israel.
The paper requested documents from Israel specifically related to UNRWA school employees, after Israel distributed a list of 100 agency workers it said were terrorists.
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Through analysis of the documents, obtained by Israel during its military campaign in Gaza, and interviews with “current and former UNRWA employees, residents and former students in Gaza,” the Times found that “at least 24 people employed by UNRWA — in 24 different schools” belonged to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
“A majority were top administrators at the schools—principals or deputy principals—and the rest were school counselors and teachers, the documents say. Almost all of the Hamas-linked educators, according to the records, were fighters in the Qassam Brigades,” the paper reported.
“Residents of Gaza said in interviews that the idea that Hamas had operatives in UNRWA schools was an open secret. One educator on Israel’s list of 100 was regularly seen after hours in Hamas fatigues carrying a Kalashnikov,” the paper said.
The Times spotlighted Ahmad al-Khatib, a deputy principal at an UNRWA-run elementary school in Gaza. He was a Hamas terrorist in Khan Younis.
Al-Khatib was a squad commander with “at least a dozen weapons, including a Kalashnikov and hand grenades,” according to detailed Hamas documents.
The records show that Hamas viewed schools and other civilian facilities as “the best obstacles to protect the resistance” in the group’s war with Israel.
Hamas’s use of UNRWA schools went beyond Gaza’s borders. The Times noted that in September, Hamas announced the death of its leader in Lebanon. Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin was killed in an airstrike in the Tyre area in the south of the country on Sept. 30.
U.N. Watch revealed that el-Amin was the principal of the UNRWA-run Deir Yassin Secondary School in El-Buss and headed the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, overseeing 39,000 students in 65 schools.
Over the course of months, Israel has revealed that UNRWA employed hundreds of terrorists.
In July, Israel’s Foreign Ministry released what it said was only a partial list, containing the names and ID numbers of 108 UNRWA employees who according to Israel worked for Hamas. The wider list could not be released due to security considerations, according to the ministry.
“We have provided much evidence that UNRWA works hand-in-hand with Hamas,” said Prime Minister’s Office spokesman David Mencer, referring to the Hamas server farm discovered underneath UNRWA’s headquarters in Gaza City and Hamas tunnels underneath UNRWA schools in the Strip.
In October, the Knesset voted to ban UNRWA, with the Foreign Ministry calling the refugee agency “rotten.”
“It is not just a few rotten apples, as U.N. Secretary-General [Antonio] Guterres is trying to claim. UNRWA in Gaza is a rotten tree entirely infected with terrorist operatives,” the ministry said.