Israel’s envoy to the United Nations is crying foul over a claim from a spokesman for the U.N. chief that the global body didn’t know about Hamas’s web of terror tunnels beneath Gaza.
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, was asked on Wednesday whether, given the sizable U.N. presence amid a multitude of Gazan agencies, the organization had any indication tunnels were being constructed
“No is clearly the answer for that,” Dujarric said. “It seems to me that all this infrastructure was built in a highly secretive way.”
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, rejected those claims in a post on social media.
“Watch the U.N. secretary-general’s spokesperson say the U.N. didn’t know about Hamas terror tunnels in Gaza! Nothing can be further from the truth,” Erdan posted. “The secretary-general himself received four detailed letters from me in the past two years reporting on Hamas tunnels built under Gaza’s civilian infrastructure including under U.N. facilities.”
Erdan attached screen captures of two of those letters—one dated Aug. 11, 2021 and the other July 29, 2022—to his post. The former informed Guterres that Hamas was denying a U.N. agency an opportunity to inspect a pair of Gazan schools run by the international body, underneath both of which the Israel Defense Forces had discovered tunnels.
The following year, Erdan wrote to Guterres and enclosed detailed proof of the “deliberately close proximity” that Hamas digs terror tunnels to schools, mosques and weapons storehouses.
“But wait: there’s more!” Erdan added in his post.
The Israeli envoy cited a 2022 statement by UNRWA, the Palestinian-only, perpetual U.N. agency for refugees and their descendants, condemning the presence of a “man-made cavity” beneath one of its Gazan schools as a breach of neutrality and international law.
Erdan claimed he briefed UNRWA Commissioner-General Phillipe Lazzarini on the tunnels in 2021.
“The digging was not secretive. The U.N. knew about it for years but because of its bias, refused to report on it and became an accomplice to Hamas’s crimes,” he wrote. “Beyond Shameful!”
Still, Dujarric insisted on Wednesday that the United Nations was unaware of the sophisticated labyrinth of tunnels being dug and fortified throughout Gaza.
“I mean, just to see it as an observer, to think that the U.N. had any understanding of what was,” he said, “any information about those operations, I think, is: No is clearly the answer for that.” JNS
Well, Israel too knew about the tunnels and the terrorists increasing power and capabilities and what did they do about it? Nothing. I believe that Netanyahu and the Israeli security knew that Oct 7 will happen and they let it so that they will be “able to show the world” why they have to fight in Gaza… As if the “world” cares that Jews died.
Indeed, the government of Israel were well aware for years about all those tunnels in the north and south but they preferred to cover it up. However, Netanyahu was removed about 2-3 years ago and replaced with a facemask in order to be able to bring about the Oct 7 attack. This Ashmedai PM (more than 1) whose eyes and shape of head look very Arabic even under the mask are playing on 2 fronts; during the day in the Israeli gov’t and then removing their masks and joining their brothers on the other side. One has to be blind not to notice they’re not the real Bibi, if you know what Bibi looks like. Google changed the face of Bibi on their cover page to match the new Ashmedai who has a quite different look than the original which can still be compared to in old videos from before 2018.
The fact is that the generals in the army and was informed by various divisions within the army and from agents within Hamas, that there will be a massive terrorist attack. Netanyahu was informed as well. Furthermore, nothing can touch the security fence without there being no immediate reaction from the army, and on Oct 7 it was breached for hours. Calls from victims were not responded to for hours. The terrorists parachuted into Israel but no one saw….yeah, right, believe all of it but not everyone is that naive….