UN summer camp in Gaza vandalized

Local UN chief: Vandalism "cowardly and despicable."

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
UN summer camp 311 (photo credit: Associated Press)
UN summer camp 311
(photo credit: Associated Press)
A UN summer camp for children in Gaza was vandalized by two dozen masked men early Monday.
The vandals burned and slashed tents, toys and a plastic swimming pool. It was the second such attack in a month.
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There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Islamic extremists have accused the main UN aid agency of corrupting Gaza's youth with its summer program of games, sports and human rights lessons for 250,000 children.
The UN's main competitor in running summer camps is Hamas, which says it has reached some 100,000 children. The Hamas camps teach Islam and military-style marching, along with swimming and horseback riding.
In Monday's attack, about two dozen armed and masked men targeted a seaside camp in central Gaza, one of dozens of UN sites across the Palestinian territory.
The assailants tied up an unarmed guard, then tried to set fire to two tents and a perimeter fence made from tarp-like material. Wielding knives, they slashed a plastic swimming pool, blow-up slide and other toys.
John Ging, the local UN chief, called it a "cowardly and despicable" attack and said the site would be rebuilt quickly.
He said the attack is the latest sign of growing levels of extremism in Gaza. He said it provides further evidence "of the urgency to change the circumstances on the ground that are generating such extremism."
Ging has repeatedly called for lifting of the 3 year-old border blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt, arguing the sanctions have mostly hurt ordinary Gazans, not Hamas. The blockade was imposed after the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007.