UN envoy: Materials let into Gaza not used for tunnels

The UN’s coordinator for humanitarian affairs in the Palestinian territories said Sunday that there was no evidence that construction material entering the Gaza Strip for use in home reconstruction was being diverted and used for military purposes, such as the construction of attack tunnels.

James Rowley told Israel Radio that the black market that existed in Gaza was one in which the less fortunate were selling construction material to their more well-off neighbors — for use in rebuilding their homes, not for military purposes.

The Times of Israel reported last week that Hamas has begun using heavy machinery and engineering tools to accelerate the excavation of attack tunnels leading from the Gaza Strip under the Israeli border. The equipment, sources in the Palestinian enclave said, includes small bulldozers with the ability to maneuver in tight spaces. From the Israeli side of the border, larger tractors are clearly visible above the ground as the machines prepare the tunnel entries. The Gaza-based terrorist organization has been using whatever cement it can get its hands on for the construction of the tunnels, and fortifying the walls of its underground structures with wood as well, the sources said.

More than 16,000 homes in Gaza were reportedly destroyed in last summer’s war between Israel and the Strip’s rulers, Hamas, and some 100,000 were damaged. In some neighborhoods, like Shejaiya, whole streets were obliterated. Much of the destruction, Israel maintains, was due to Gazan fighters’ locating their missile launchers and attack tunnels in residential neighborhoods.

Rowley told the radio station that at present there are no official talks between the UN and Hamas on a long-term truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip, but he recommended that such talks take place, adding that the Palestinian Authority should be involved in them.

Rowley called for pushing forward the process of allowing construction material into Gaza and for  steps to ease and ultimately remove the blockade of Gaza.

Overnight Saturday, an explosive device was detonated outside the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City. No casualties were reported.

“A bomb exploded near the outer wall of UNRWA’s headquarters in Gaza, some 10 meters from the gate, without causing any injuries or damage,” agency spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna told AFP.

The Hamas-run security forces also confirmed the blast, saying they had opened an inquiry after “two homemade bombs” exploded, one outside UNRWA and a second elsewhere in the city, causing slight damage but no injuries.

The incidents took place just hours before members of the Ramallah-based Palestinian cabinet were to visit Gaza.

Such explosions take place on a regular basis in Gaza, often targeting political officials, whether representatives of President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party or the rival Hamas movement which is still the de facto power in Gaza.

They have also targeted both public buildings and private homes and cars.

In December, an explosive device went off near the French Cultural Center in Gaza City, the most visible foreign presence in the tiny enclave, which is home to 1.8 million people.

AFP contributed to this report.