Israel-Hamas war: Israel unveils tunnels underneath Gaza City headquarters of UN agency for Palestinian refugees

The Israeli military says it has discovered tunnels underneath the main headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City, alleging Hamas militants used the space as an electrical supply room. Photo / AP

The Israeli military says it has discovered tunnels underneath the main headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City, alleging Hamas militants used the space as an electrical supply room.

The unveiling of the tunnels marked the latest chapter in Israel’s campaign against the embattled agency, which it accuses of collaborating with Hamas.

Recent Israeli allegations that a dozen staff members participated in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 plunged the agency into a financial crisis, prompting major donor states to suspend their funding as well as twin investigations. The agency says Israel has also frozen its bank account, embargoed aid shipments and cancelled its tax benefits.

The army invited journalists to view the tunnel on Thursday.

It did not prove definitively that Hamas militants operated in the tunnels underneath the UNRWA facility, but it did show at least a portion of the tunnel ran underneath the facility’s courtyard. The military claimed the headquarters supplied the tunnels with electricity.

Israeli soldiers take military positions as they enter the UNRWA headquarters, beneath which the military discovered tunnels it it says Hamas militants used to attack its forces during a ground operation in Gaza. Photo / AP

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the agency had no knowledge of the facilities underground, but the findings merit an “independent inquiry”, which the agency is unable to perform due to the ongoing war.

The headquarters, on the western edge of Gaza City, are now completely decimated. To locate the tunnel, forces repeated an Israeli tactic used elsewhere in the strip, overturning mounds of red earth to produce a crater-like hole giving way to a small tunnel entrance. The unearthed shaft led to an underground passageway that an Associated Press journalist estimated stretched for at least half a kilometre, with at least 10 doors.

At one point, journalists were able to gaze upward from the tunnel, through a hole, and make eye contact with soldiers standing in a courtyard within the UNRWA facility.

Inside one of the UNRWA buildings, journalists saw a room full of computers with wires stretching down into the ground. Soldiers then showed them a room in the underground tunnel where they claimed the wires connected.

That underground room bore a wall of electrical cabinets with multi-coloured buttons and which was lined with dozens of cables. The military claimed the room served as a hub powering tunnel infrastructure in the area.

An Israeli soldier runs down a crater-like hole giving way to a small tunnel entrance into the UNRWA compound. Photo / AP

“20m above us are the UNRWA headquarters,” said Lieutenant Colonel Ido, whose last name was redacted by the military. “This is the electricity room, you can see all around here. The batteries, the electricity on walls, everything is conducted from here - all the energy for the tunnels which you walked though are powered from here.”

The Associated Press journalist could see the tunnel stretching beyond the area underneath the facility.

Hamas has acknowledged building hundreds of kilometres of tunnels across Gaza. One of the main objectives of the Israeli offensive has been to destroy that network, which it says is used by Hamas to move fighters, weapons and supplies throughout the territory. It accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields and has exposed many tunnels running near mosques, schools and UN facilities.

Lazzarini said the agency was unaware what lay beneath it, saying he had visited the facility multiple times and did not recognise the electrical room. In a statement, Lazzarini wrote that UNRWA had conducted a regular quarterly inspection of the facility in September.

“UNRWA is a human development and humanitarian organisation that does not have the military and security expertise nor the capacity to undertake military inspections of what is or might be under its premises,” read the statement.

The unveiling of the tunnels marked the latest chapter in Israel's campaign against the embattled agency, which it accuses of collaborating with Hamas. Photo / AP

Also in the tunnel, journalists saw a small bathroom with a toilet and a faucet, a room with shelves and a room with two small vehicles in it that soldiers said the militants used to traverse the tunnel network. The military said on Saturday night that the tunnel began at a UNRWA school and was 700m long and 18m deep.

The military said forces uncovered rifles, ammunition, grenades and explosives in the facility, and claimed it has been used by Hamas militants. Lazzarini said the agency has not revisited the headquarters since staff evacuated on October 12, and is unaware of how the facility may have been used.

Bullet holes and shrapnel pockmark the walls of buildings in Gaza. Photo / AP

Israel has found similar primitive quarters in tunnels across Gaza over the course of its four month-long campaign in Gaza. The offensive was launched after Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing some 1200 people and dragging 250 hostages back to Gaza. Since then, Israeli warplanes and ground troops have killed over 27,000 Palestinians in the strip, unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe and wreaked widespread damage.

Leaving the facility, it was nearly impossible to identify one window left fully intact. Bullet holes pockmarked the walls. Shrapnel was everywhere, crumpled-up UN vehicles were perched precariously atop building debris. Dogs roamed the area.

“The Israeli army is occupying our biggest UNRWA headquarters,” Touma said in response to Israeli allegations. “That’s what’s outrageous.”