Israel’s UN Ambassador Says There Are More Hamas Missiles at UNRWA Facilities.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Says There Are More Hamas Missiles at UNRWA Facilities.(Algemeiner).

A day after UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, admitted that it had discovered 20 Hamas rockets at one of its schools, Israel’s UN Ambassador said he was certain that more such facilities housed Hamas weaponry.

“Yesterday, UNRWA admitted that it mysteriously found 20 missiles in one of its schools,” Ambassador Ron Prosor said on Friday in an emergency Security Council session on Gaza. “I’m sure that if UNRWA takes the time to check its other facilities, it will discover that this is just the tip of the iceberg.  Hamas is using UN facilities to commit a double war crime by targeting Israeli civilians while hiding behind Palestinian civilians.”

His comments came the morning after Israeli forces entered Gaza in an expansion of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge aimed at ending rocket fire against civilians.

In his extensive remarks, outlining Israel’s position on the conflict with Hamas, Prosor also said that it was time for the international community to face the consequences of its failed policies regarding the Gaza based terror group.

“For years, we told you about the thousands of rockets that Hamas was smuggling into Gaza. We were met with silence.  Time and again we called on the international community to condemn the rocket fire and we were met with silence,” he said.

“It is time for the international community to face the consequences of its inaction. Hamas used its foothold in Gaza to trample on the Palestinian people and build a terror base in Israel’s backyard.  And now it sees an opportunity to do it again.”

After announcing the discovery of the rockets on Thursday,  UNRWA said in a statement that it “strongly condemns the group or groups responsible for placing the weapons in one of its installations. This is a flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law. This incident, which is the first of its kind in Gaza, endangered civilians including staff and put at risk UNRWA’s vital mission to assist and protect Palestine refugees in Gaza.”

The discovery of rockets was the second strike against the agency in as many days, after Prosor on Wednesday called for the immediate suspension of UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness for encouraging international journalists to interview a professor who justifies terrorism against civilians to bolster Hamas.

“Rather than denouncing Hamas’s targeting of innocent civilians, Mr. Gunness is shamelessly promoting an individual who shares Hamas’s morally reprehensible convictions,” Prosor said in a letter to Pierre Krähenbühl, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General.

“Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization, deliberately embeds its military operations in residential areas and exploits its own civilian population as human shields. These actions constitute war crimes and should be condemned in no uncertain terms.

In failing to do so, Mr. Gunness is ignoring Hamas’s abuse of the civilian population in Gaza and acting in opposition to UNRWA’s mandate.”
Read Ambassador Prosor’s full Security Council speech here.