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IDF arrests terrorists embedded in detained UN aid caravan

The humanitarian caravan was not carrying polio vaccines but was involved in changing over personnel in several locations in Gaza.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

The IDF announced on Monday that it arrested several terror suspects after detaining a United Nations team in northern Gaza.

The IDF detained the UN team traveling as part of a humanitarian aid caravan on suspicion that it was harboring terrorists.

Contrary to earlier reports, the humanitarian caravan was not carrying polio vaccines but was involved in changing over personnel in several locations in Gaza.

The IDF is currently holding the suspects for questioning.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA, has since October 7 been exposed by Israel and others as having close ties to Hamas.

UNRWA employees in Gaza, including teachers and medical personnel, are now known to belong to Hamas.

At least nine UNRWA employees took part in the October 7 atrocities and have been fired.

Israel believes that 100 UNRWA employees are members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

In addition, Israel says that 10% of the 13,000 UNRWA workers in Gaza have connections — without being members — to Hamas and PIJ.

In July, the IDF raided UNRWA’s headquarters in Gaza City where Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups were operating.

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Troops discovered terror operatives, weapons, detention rooms, and other terror infrastructure. The army said it previously destroyed a tunnel below the UNRWA compound.

“The Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations continue to systematically operate and carry out terrorist activity from inside civilian infrastructure. The IDF will continue to operate against the terrorist organizations in accordance with international law,” the army said.

The UN Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees, has faced serious criticism, with Israeli officials demanding the agency be stripped of its authority in Gaza and defunded amid revelations that members of the agency’s staff participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks.