OUTRAGE: Hamas Terror Tunnel Found Beneath 2 UN Schools in Gaza - CBN News Tzippe Barrow

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Hamas Attack Tunnel in Gaza

OUTRAGE: Hamas Terror Tunnel Found Beneath 2 UN Schools in Gaza

06-12-2017

CBN News Tzippe Barrow

JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it's time for the United Nations to "reconsider the continued existence" of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA).

Netanyahu made the comments against the backdrop of the recent discovery of a Hamas terror tunnel constructed beneath two UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip.

"A Hamas tunnel has recently been discovered under two schools in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is using schoolchildren as human shields and this is the enemy that we have been fighting against for many years, an enemy that is committing a twofold war crime. On the one hand, it first attacks innocent civilians and then hides behind children," Netanyahu said, adding that he'd instructed the Foreign Ministry director general to file an official protest with the U.N. Security Council against Hamas regarding the tunnel.

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He told cabinet ministers he'd discussed UNRWA with U.S. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley last week and thanked her for the strong stance she's taking on behalf of Israel at the United Nations.

"Since World War Two, there has been – and continue to be today – millions of refugees. And these millions have the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), while most of the Palestinian refugees are settled and have a separate commission. This is UNRWA; it has its own institutions and considerable incitement against Israel," Netanyahu explained.

UNRWA Perpetuates the 'Refugee Problem'

"I regret that UNRWA, to a large degree, by its very existence, perpetuates – and does not solve – the Palestinian refugee problem. Therefore, the time has come to disband UNRWA and integrate it into the UNHCR," said Netanyahu.

UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness responded by saying only the U.N. General Assembly has the authority to decide UNRWA's fate, noting that in December "a large majority" extended the agency's mandate this past December by three years.

Gunness said UNRWA condemned "the existence of such tunnels in the strongest possible terms."

UNRWA employees discovered the tunnel on June 1 during the construction of an extension of one of the buildings, while students were on summer vacation.

Like other Hamas attack tunnels, it runs from inside Gaza toward the Israeli border and about 2-3 meters (yards) under the schools.

According to Gunness, UNRWA reached an agreement with Hamas "…to seal the tunnel under its premises as an immediate priority" after "robustly" intervening and protesting to Hamas.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called Netanyahu's remarks "baseless accusations," saying Hamas has nothing to do with the tunnel and warning UNRWA "to withdraw its accusations against Hamas" to avoid jeopardizing its relationship with Hamas.

Meanwhile, Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said, "It is clear as day that the Arab world in its entirety now understands that the terrorist organization Hamas is destroying the Gaza Strip and eliminating any prospects of a better future for Gazans. Perhaps it is time for the residents of Gaza to understand it themselves," the Israeli daily Israel Hayom reported.

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Human Shields: 'Hamas Wants Israel to Kill Their Children'

By Chris Mitchell

CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

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GAZA BORDER -- Seven Israeli soldiers have been killed in a confrontation with Hamas infiltrators disguised as Israeli soldiers wearing suicide belts inside the Israeli border.

The IDF killed most of these infiltrators. So far, the Israel Defense Force has destroyed more than 20 tunnels and killed nearly 200 Hamas terrorists since the start of its ground operation.

Here on the Israeli-Gaza border you can see the plumes of smoke from the fighting within Gaza city. The IDF has called up 60,000 troops in Operation Protective Edge. About 30 soldiers have died in the line of battle.

Israeli soldiers find themselves fighting an enemy that uses the same tactics as al Qaeda in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Col. Richard Kemp, who commanded British ground troops in Afghanistan, refutes the claim that Israel has committed war crimes.

"The British forces fought against the Taliban for many years in Afghanistan," Kemp said. "They use human shields. They attempt to lure us to kill their civilian population. It's a common theme among Islamist extremist groups in this world."

"Everything I've seen would suggest to me that Israel is not committing a war crime," he said. "Far from it. Israel is going further than most other countries in this world, going to prevent the loss of civilian innocent civilian life."

"The people that are committing the war crimes are Hamas who fire rockets into Israeli civilian population indiscriminately and who also use their own people as human shields," he continued. "That is a war crime."

"Hamas wants the Israeli Defense Force to kill their children, their women, that's what they want to happen," he said. "They want to get the propaganda; they want to get the publicity, the sympathy and the pity of the world to by getting the Israelis to kill their population. That's exactly what their tactic is."

Former IDF spokesperson Avital Leibovitz said Hamas deliberately put Palestinian civilians in harm's way during the intense fighting in Shebalia.

"We are trying to do everything we can in order to make sure that civilians are evacuated from the area," he said. "However, as we've seen from Hamas time and time again, the Ministry of Interior is forbidding their civilians -- it's really tragic -- he's forbidding them from leaving those areas and we find ourselves in very tough situations."

On the diplomatic front, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and U.S.Secretary of State John Kerry are in the region trying to broker a ceasefire. Yet Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said they would continue to fight Israel.