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Senior UNRWA school staff were Hamas terrorists – Report

At least 24 teachers and administrators at UNRWA schools named as armed fighters in Hamas internal documents.

By World Israel News Staff

Dozens of staff at UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip were active members of Hamas’ military wings, and were named as combatants on internal documents and issued weapons by the terror group, according to a New York Times report.

Israeli forces seized numerous documents from Hamas offices in the Strip which clearly indicated that at least 24 administrators and teachers on UNRWA’s payroll were Hamas operatives.

Several Gazans, speaking anonymously, confirmed to the Times that it was widely known that many UNRWA staff were affiliated with Hamas or active members of the terror group.

One teacher was often seen dressed in Hamas’ fatigues after leaving his post at an UNRWA school.

A quick glance at the social media profiles of many of those named on the lists shows open support for Hamas, including posts of the terror groups’ banners.

In 2017, a tunnel used by the Hamas terror group was located inside of an UNRWA school.

Khaled al-Masri, the principal of the school, is a Hamas operative who was given a handgun and assault rifle by the terror group, according to the Times report.

But despite extensive evidence of Hamas infiltrating UNRWA schools, the U.N. agency has not taken steps to expel terrorists from its payroll.

“The U.N. has been unable and or unwilling to eliminate Hamas militants and their supporters, as well as those from other terrorist groups, from their ranks,” James Lindsay, who served as UNRWA’s general counsel until 2007, told the Times.

“UNRWA hiring practices and the makeup of the labor pool from which UNRWA draws its employees suggests to me that the numbers the Israelis are talking about are probably pretty close to the truth.”

In a laconic statement, UNRWA commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini claimed that the organization does not have the resources to conduct thorough background checks on its employees.

He also sniped that it was “extraordinarily interesting” that Israel shared the documents with the press, rather than UNRWA.

Lazzrini did not acknowledge that UNRWA has consistently rejected evidence of terror within the organization, when presented with that information by Israel.

After being shown footage of UNRWA employees throwing a murdered Israeli’s corpse into a vehicle during the October 7th terror onslaught, the organization only managed to say that some of its staff “may” have been involved with Hamas.

“The U.N. seems intent on portraying this problem as a few bad apples, rather than acknowledging that the tree is rotten,” said Amir Weissbrod, Israel’s foreign ministry’s deputy director for international organizations, told the Times.

Hamas spokesman Basem Naim declined to comment on the report.