In a shock to no one except perhaps some of the so-called "progressive" leftists who have become cheerleaders for Hamas and other Iran-backed terrorists, commandos in the Israel Defense Forces have discovered a Hamas command center and a cache of terrorist weapons inside the Gaza City headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
The discovery was made during an operation earlier this week and it's not the first time the IDF has found Hamas terrorists hiding their barbaric operations in, under, and around the UN agency headquarters. As The Times of Israel reminded, the IDF "raided the compound earlier this year, discovering a major Hamas tunnel network that passed beneath it." This week's operation — after the UNRWA HQ ceased being used for alleged aid efforts in recent months — saw the IDF capture Hamas terrorists who tried to escape and engage "in battles with cells of gunmen who were holed up inside."
After retaking control of the UN compound, IDF commandos "also found parts of a Hamas drone, a command room used to observe Israeli forces and dozens of weapons, including rockets, machine guns, mortars, explosive devices, grenades and drones that drop bombs," according to The Times of Israel report. "In a nearby university building, the IDF says the commandos located an underground bomb-making lab and additional weapons."
@UNRWA , how many more times will your facilities and infrastructure be exploited by terrorists?
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 12, 2024
Our troops found UAVs, war rooms used for surveillance operations and large quantities of weapons, including tactical drones, rockets, machine guns, mortars, explosives and grenades… pic.twitter.com/bs5SP9rNwl
The IDF finding Hamas terrorists back in areas that were previously cleared by Israeli forces did not come as a surprise to Joe Truzman, the senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' (FDD) Long War Journal. "Hamas and its allies are making a strategic push to re-establish their presence in areas previously controlled by Israeli forces," Truzman noted in a recent FDD Flash Brief.
"This development has become increasingly apparent as the IDF has launched targeted raids against infrastructure that has either gone undetected in previous operations or has been recently established by terror groups. To its credit, Israeli intelligence has proven it can identify these efforts and eliminate the threat," added Truzman.
The fact that UNRWA facilities have been and continue to be used by Hamas to hide its operations centers, weapons, and terrorists — not to mention the UNRWA employees who participated in the barbaric attack of October 7 — is another reminder that a few nations temporarily suspending funding for the UN agency may not be enough to keep terrorists from reaping benefits from supposedly "humanitarian" efforts.
FDD Senior Advisor Richard Goldberg suggested that "[i]n the absence of Treasury Department action, Congress might consider legislation imposing terrorism sanctions on UNRWA. We have sufficient evidence to support such a designation under Executive Order 13224, but Congress could always force the action, in order to end UNRWA's non-U.S. funding for good," he emphasized.