UNRWA Finds Rockets in Palestinian School

UNRWA, the agency that oversees aid to Palestinian refugees, made the embarrassing discovery of 20 rockets hidden in one of its vacant schools in Gaza, according to media reports on Thursday.

Israel said that was but one instance of Hamas and other Gazan terror groups using civilian infrastructure to hide weapons.

“Yet again, Gaza terrorists abuse U.N. facilities to carry out their violent activities. Hamas and other terror groups are determined to put civilians in harm’s way and will respect nothing in their violent frenzy,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor told The Times of Israel.

“We expect the U.N. and the international community to condemn and to act strongly against this brazen violation of international humanitarian law, which endangers children and UN humanitarian activities.”

The organization said that it “endangered civilians including staff and put at risk UNRWA’s vital mission to assist and protect Palestinian refugees in Gaza.”

UNRWA said it informed the relevant authorities, and “took all necessary measures” to remove the objects and preserve the safety and security of the school.”

Officials from the agency, which has been exceedingly critical of Israeli policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians, were summoned to the Foreign Ministry where they  apologized to Israel for the incident, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the July 18th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.