Israel unveils tunnels underneath Gaza City headquarters of UN agency for Palestinian refugees

MicroWave@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 118 points – Israel unveils tunnels underneath Gaza City headquarters of UN agency for Palestinian refugees
apnews.com

The Israeli military says it has discovered tunnels underneath the main headquarters of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City, alleging that Hamas militants used the space as an electrical supply room.

The unveiling of the tunnels marked the latest chapter in Israel’s campaign against the embattled agency, which it accuses of collaborating with Hamas.

Recent Israeli allegations that a dozen staff members participated in the Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7 plunged the agency into a financial crisis, prompting major donor states to suspend their funding as well as twin investigations. The agency says that Israel has also frozen its bank account, embargoed aid shipments and canceled its tax benefits.

The army invited journalists to view the tunnel on Thursday.

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You can minimalize it as much as you want. Better than the previous denial i guess. But the fact is, multiple countries have stopped donations and they will not fund until the UN presents a full and transparent investigation.

Multiple countries blindly trusting Isreal isn't exactly a good thing.

But multiple countries believing in reality and their intelligence agencies is a good thing.

Only if you think reality == Isreali Intel.

Each intelligence agency makes their own evaluation, but nice try.

Except they literally didn't in this case.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240131171342/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/01/30/unrwa-gaza-israel-aid/

The United States has not independently verified Israel’s claims, which are based on intercepted communications, phone location data, interrogations of Hamas fighters and documents that the Israeli military has recovered in Gaza, officials said. The Washington Post reviewed a document containing the names, U.N. positions and alleged Hamas roles of the 12 individuals, which were shared with the United States and other governments, but has been unable to corroborate the information.

The evidence Israel has privately presented persuaded the United States and eight other country donors to pause funding for UNRWA, a decision that other aid groups have warned imperils the safety and welfare of Gaza civilians who depend on U.N. relief and assistance. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the Israeli information “highly credible.”

US officials say that funding will depend on a credible investigation and acknowledge that there is no real alternative to UNRWA. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said "Let’s not impugn the good work of a whole agency because of the potential bad action here of a small number".

All* , Each intelligence agency writes their own report, from all sources available, gives it a degree of confidence and sends it to the decision maker. I very much doubt that Israeli intelligence was the only thing used.

When will Israel submit evidence to the UN?

We need a full and transparent investigation of Israel.

It's the UN's agency. It's up to them to do the fact finding if they want funding.

No.

Israel is the one who made the claim.

It is up to them to provide evidence.

No. You don't trust what Isreal says so you want them to investigate a separate organization? Now why would that be?

I want them to submit their evidence to the UN to be assessed by an organization designated for peace.

You want to blindly believe anything Israel claims, despite the constant history of lying. I can only assume this is to justify to yourself the atrocities they are committing?

No. I'll see what the UN claims. You can suppose anything you want about me, but you don't have to suppose this will be our last communication

A.K.A. you'll blindly believe Israel despite them giving zero proof to the international community.

I bet you believed Saddam had WMD's too.

Last time I heard this excuse was when all the tankies were calling Biden a lier and stoking tensions for saying Russia was going to invade Ukraine.