Hamas Rockets Found in Second United Nations School

Hamas Rockets Found in Second United Nations School

We're officially through the looking glass here with rockets and United Nations Relief and Works Agency schools in Gaza. For the second time in a week, the United Nations agency disclosed that rockets were discovered in one of their vacant schools. From the U.N.R.W.A. statement

Today, in the course of the regular inspection of its premises, UNRWA discovered rockets hidden in a vacant school in the Gaza Strip. As soon as the rockets were discovered, UNRWA staff were withdrawn from the premises, and so we are unable to confirm the precise number of rockets.

This time, though, it was a little bit different. The rockets were being stored in a facility within close proximity of roughly 3,000 displaced Palestinians.

The school is situated between two other UNRWA schools that currently each accommodate 1,500 internally displaced persons.

If you're looking to confirm the oft-repeated Israeli narrative that Hamas and terrorist groups in Gaza endanger Gazans by hiding weapons among the civilian population, then this episode is your smoking missile. Throw in a second incident involving a United Nations agency that is criticized by Israel for its seeming bias and you've got absurdity that would make Samuel Beckett blush.

As the Israeli Foreign Ministry told The Times of Israel

How many more schools will have to be abused by Hamas missile squads before the international community will intervene. How many times can it turn its head the other way and pretend that it just doesn’t see?”

As we noted yesterday, U.N.R.W.A. came under fire last week not only after rockets were discovered in a vacant school, but also as its critics accused the agency of turning the rockets over to "local authorities," which in Hamas-run Gaza, could mean the rockets went right back into circulation.

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U.N.R.W.A. did not immediately return a request for comment. 

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/07/hamas-rockets-found-in-second-united-nations-school/374874/

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