Israeli forces have discovered a network of tunnels hundreds of meters long that also run under the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza, the military says, calling it new evidence that Hamas is using the main Palestinian aid agency.

Israeli military gendarmes escorted journalists from foreign news agencies through the aisles in a moment of reckoning for the UN agency, which has launched an internal investigation and lost money from a number of donor countries following allegations made by Israel last month that some UNRWA staff were Hamas operatives.

Palestinians have accused Israel of falsifying information to tarnish the image of UNRWA, which has 13,000 staff in the Gaza Strip and has for years been a lifeline to the aid-dependent population.

The agency runs schools, primary care clinics and other social services and distributes aid, describing its activities as purely humanitarian.

UNRWA is headquartered in Gaza City, among the northern areas that Israeli troops and tanks overran at the start of a four-month war against the Islamist faction Hamas.

What did the journalists who were brought to the scene see?

During the trip, the journalists, accompanied by Israel, entered a well near the school on the outskirts of the UN complex, descending into a concrete-lined tunnel.

A 20-minute walk through a stiflingly hot, narrow and sometimes winding passage brought them to UNRWA headquarters, said an army lieutenant colonel who led the tour.

The tunnel, which the military says is 700 meters long and 18 meters deep, sometimes branches out to reveal side chambers. There was an office space with steel safes that had been opened and emptied. There is a tiled toilet.

One large room was filled with computer servers, the other with stacks of industrial batteries. “Everything is controlled from here. All the energy of the tunnels you passed through is coming from here,” said the lieutenant colonel, who gave only his first name, Ido.

“It was one of the central intelligence headquarters. One of the Hamas intelligence units was located here, where they directed most of the fighting.”

But Ido said Hamas appeared to be evacuating in the face of the Israeli offensive, having preemptively cut communications cables that he showed on the ground part of the tour run through the basement of UNRWA headquarters.

It appears that powerful Israeli dams and prolonged winter rains may also have played a role in the departure, with several sections of the tunnel filled with sand and knee-deep water, Reuters noted.

The reaction of the UN agency

In a statement, UNRWA said that Israeli authorities had not been officially informed of the tunnel and that the tunnel had left the premises on October 12, five days after the war began.

It is therefore “unable to confirm or comment further” on the Israelis’ findings: “UNRWA… has no military and security experience, nor the ability to conduct military inspections of what is or could be under its headquarters.”

“In the past, whenever a suspicious cavity was discovered near or under UNRWA headquarters, letters of protest were immediately sent to the parties involved in the conflict, including the de facto authorities in Gaza (Hamas) and the Israeli authorities. “, the message adds.

A lie, claims Hamas

Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, dismissed Israel’s claims about the tunnel as “lies.” He told Reuters that Israel wants to undermine the work of UNRWA and is “covering it up with such statements”.

Supporters of UNRWA argue that it is the only agency with the means to help the Palestinians in their deepening humanitarian crisis.

Israel says the agency has “infiltrated Hamas” and must be replaced. Hamas denies activities on civilian targets.

“We know that they (Hamas) have people who work for UNRWA. We want every international organization to work in Gaza. This is not a problem. Our problem is Hamas,” Ido told reporters who had come to see the tunnel.