Gaza records show senior staff at UNRWA schools were members of Hamas military wing — NYT

Documents shared by Israeli officials with the New York Times have shown that at least 24 people employed in UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip were members of Gaza terrorist groups, including Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Times reports.

Citing data shared by the IDF and the Foreign Ministry, the New York Times reports that many of the terror operatives employed in UNRWA schools held senior positions, such as principal or vice principal, while others were teachers or school counselors. Most of those with ties to Hamas were said to be directly linked to the Al-Qassam Brigades, the terror group’s military wing.

The paper notes that although it could not independently verify the documents, which it says it asked for, after Israel accused UNRWA of employing staff with ties to Hamas, they were similar to other Hamas records previously verified by the news outlet.

One of the documents seized by the IDF in Gaza reveals Hamas’s plans to use school buildings as a place to store weapons, the report states, while another describes the enclave’s schools as “the best obstacles to protect the resistance [Hamas]” in a war against Israel.

The documents also reveal that several of the school administrators remained employed by UNRWA even after Israel warned the agency that they were tied to various terror groups, the New York Times adds.