IDF raids UNRWA clinic in Gaza used to store Hamas weapons, Israel says

The Israeli military said it uncovered a trove of Hamas weapons hidden inside a clinic in northern Gaza belonging to the embattled United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) group.

The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that their troops were attacked by Hamas gunmen operating inside the clinic in Jabalia, with an airstrike called to kill the terrorists.

The IDF claimed that a secondary explosion from the clinic proved the existence of a weapons warehouse hidden in the medical buildings.

The Israeli military has made similar accusations during its year-long operations in Gaza, but it has yet to be verified if any UNRWA workers were together with Hamas when the buildings were taken over.

The UNRWA has yet to respond to the latest allegation from the IDF, which seeks to ban the group from operating in Gaza and the West Bank as it accuses its members of being closely affiliated with Hamas.

The UN aid group has denied the allegations and previously said that the intense fighting in northern Gaza has forced the group to shutter most of its operations in the area.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general for the UNRWA, said the two weeks of recent fighting in the north have resulted in the death of hundreds of Palestinians, with about 400,000 people trapped between Hamas and the IDF’s advancements.

“The health system has all but collapsed,” Lazzarini said Monday. “In Gaza, too many red lines have been crossed. What might constitute war crimes can still be prevented.”

Lazzarini said the UN’s refugee camp in Jabalia has been hit repeatedly, with the group saying IDF shells struck a food distribution center on Monday, killing 10 people.

The IDF has upped its operations in Jabalia in order to take out Hamas terrorists who continue to reemerge in northern Gaza, with an airstrike in the city last week killing 12 terrorists, including some directly involved in the Oct. 7 massacre.

Israel’s parliament has given preliminary approval to designate UNRWA a terrorist organization after the humanitarian group fired nine staff members who may have helped Hamas, in some capacity, conduct the terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel.

It was also revealed last month that a suspended UNRWA worker who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon had also been serving as a Hamas commander in the region.