In a statement to the media, Danon’s office explained that this was not an isolated incident and that weapons and terror tunnels had been found in UNRWA schools in the past.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFAn UNRWA-run school in Rafah, Gaza(photo credit: FLICKR)
Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon has charged that UNRWA schools in Gaza are “terror storage facilities” and has called on the UN to condemn the organization, which is the main provider of services to Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.He sent a letter to UN senior officials on the matter, after the United Nations Relief and Works Agency reported a few weeks ago that a grenade and a military vest had been found in one of its Gaza facilities.UNRWA schools, he wrote, “are UN-funded terrorist storage facilities. This is not the first time UNRWA and other schools have been used for military purposes by Palestinian terrorist groups. Indeed, there have been several incidents of such grave violations of international law and Security Council resolutions.”Danon called on the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, to condemn such incidents and to cite it in the UN Secretary-General’s Special Report on “Children and armed conflict.”In a statement to the media, Danon’s office explained that this was not an isolated incident and that weapons and terror tunnels had been found in UNRWA schools in the past.UNRWA has consistently condemned the placement of such weapons in its schools and did so as well last month when it reported the incident to Israel, the Gaza authorities and the media.“UNRWA strongly and unequivocally condemns the individual or group responsible for this flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law,” it said last month.UNRWA explained that it has a strict no-weapons policy and inspects the faculties for compliance but that due to budget cuts it can no longer afford to hire guards to ensure that its facilities are weapon free.
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