Gaza: UN compound, hospital hit
Witnesses, UNRWA officials said Israeli shells struck world body's headquarters in Strip, wounding at least three people. Ban 'outraged'; IDF yet to confirm report
Ali Waked and Yael Levy
| Published: | 01.15.09, 12:30 / Israel News |
Witnesses and UN officials said Israeli shells have struck the United Nations headquarters in the Gaza Strip Thursday.
The compound has been serving as a shelter for hundreds of people fleeing Israel's offensive in Gaza. UN spokesman Chris Gunness says at least three people were wounded. The entire area is engulfed in smoke and it's not clear whether anyone is still inside the compound.
The compound includes the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, other offices and a school. Gunness says large amounts of aid supplies, as well as fuel trucks, could soon be destroyed.
Guinness told Ynet that the group had received reports from eyewitness "with a military background" suggesting the building was hit by white phosphorus shells.
The IDF has not confirmed the report, which came just minutes ahead of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's meeting with Ban Ki-moon. The UN secretary general is demanding an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza.
Ban said he has expressed "strong protest and outrage" to Israel over the shelling and demanded an investigation into the incident. He said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has told him it was a "grave mistake." |
Palestinian sources also reported an attack on a Red Crescent hospital in Gaza City's Tel Hawwa neighborhood. According to the report, the hospital, which houses 500 beds was on fire.
The Physicians for Human Rights groups said it was informed "of a fire in the hospital's administrative building. there are about 400 to 500 people inside, including 40 medical staffers and 15 patients which can be moved only by ambulances. Rescue efforts are hindered by the flames… We demand the IDF assist in the immediate evacuation of the patients."
Earlier it was reported that Israeli tanks shelled downtown Gaza City and ground troops thrust deep into the crowded Tel Hawwa neighborhood for the first time, sending thousands of terrified residents fleeing for cover and increasing pressure on Hamas rulers to accept the proposed ceasefire.
U.N. Agency That Runs School Hit in Gaza Employed Hamas and Islamic Jihad Members
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Reuters
Jan. 5, 2009: A Palestinian boy sits in a United Nations school after fleeing his home during Israel's offensive in Gaza.
The United Nations agency that administers a school in Gaza where dozens of civilians were killed by Israeli mortar fire last week has admitted to employing terrorists to work at its Palestinian schools in the past, has no system in place to keep members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad off its payroll, and provides textbooks to children that contain hate speech and other incendiary information.
A growing chorus of critics has taken aim at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in recent years, although momentum on Capitol Hill has been slow. But last week's incident, which Israel maintains was prompted by Hamas operatives firing mortars at Israelis from a location near the school, has prompted some lawmakers to scrutinize the U.N. agency.
Rep. Steve Rothman, D-N.J., introduced a resolution in the fall calling for greater transparency and accountability at UNRWA. The bill called on the agency to make its textbooks available on the Internet for public inspection and to implement "terrorist name recognition software and other screening procedures that would help to ensure that UNRWA staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries are neither terrorists themselves, nor affiliated with known terrorist organizations."
Rothman said he plans to re-introduce his UNRWA resolution in the coming weeks because, "as timely as this bill was before, it is even more timely now. It is urgent that Congress can be assured that U.S. taxpayer money is not being spent to support Hamas and its murderous activities."
A spokesman for UNRWA adamantly said that the agency is now free of terrorist connections. "We're composed of social workers and teachers," the official explained. "We take every step possible to have only civilians inside UNRWA facilities."
But the U.N. Personal History form for UNRWA employees does not ask whether someone is a member of, or affiliated with, a terrorist organization such as Hamas or Islamic Jihad. And there is no formal screening to ensure that employees are not affiliated with terrorist entities.
Asked about this, the UNRWA spokesman replied, "Palestinian staff sign an undertaking confirming that they have no political affiliations whatsoever, and have not and will not participate in any activities that would violate the neutrality of the U.N."
There is no formal enforcement, however, to monitor possible terrorist activities by employees after they sign the pledge at the time of hiring.
UNRWA official Chris Guinness told the Jerusalem Post this week that the agency screens names of new employees against the relatively small U.N. database of Taliban and Al Qaeda figures. Extremist Palestinians, however, are far more likely to belong to organizations, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, that are not on that watch list.
In 2004, former UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen told the Canadian Broadcasting Company, "I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime." He added, "We do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another."
There have been several high-profile examples of terrorists being employed by UNRWA. Former top Islamic Jihad rocket maker Awad Al-Qiq, who was killed in an Israeli air strike last May, was the headmaster and science instructor at an UNRWA school in Rafah, Gaza. Said Siyam, Hamas' interior minister and head of the Executive Force, was a teacher for over two decades in UNRWA schools.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill say they are also concerned that terrorist propaganda is being taught in UNRWA schools. A notebook captured by Israeli officials at the UNRWA school in the Kalandia refugee camp several years ago glorified homicide bombers and other terrorists. Called "The Star Team," it profiled so-called "martyrs," Palestinians who had died either in homicide bombings or during armed struggle with Israel. On the book's back cover was printed the UNRWA emblem, as well as a photo of a masked gunman taking aim while on one knee.
There is evidence that students educated in UNRWA schools are much more likely to become homicide bombers, said Jonathan Halevi, a former Israeli Defense Forces intelligence officer who specializes in Palestinian terrorist organizations. Halevi has spent several years building an extensive database for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs of terrorist attacks by Hamas and other Islamic extremist groups.
Though he cautioned that estimates are tricky because the identity of an attacker is not always made public, Halevi estimated that over 60 percent of homicide bombers were educated in UNRWA schools. By comparison, roughly 25-30 percent of Palestinian students in the West Bank, the origin of almost all homicide bombers since the start of the intifada in 2000, attend UNRWA schools, according to the agency's figures.
A UNRWA spokesman strongly disputed any connection between the agency's schools and a greater likelihood of terrorist activity later in life. As proof, he pointed to UNRWA's "special efforts in our schools to teach tolerance, human rights and peaceful conflict resolution."
UNRWA sent an eight-page brochure to FOXNews.com that speaks about the group's tolerance, human rights and peaceful conflict resolution curriculum. But it makes no mention of tolerance toward Jews or Christians or of peaceful coexistence with Israel. Rather, it is geared toward student interaction, the rights students should expect in society, and learning to express emotions through acting, painting, and storytelling.
2 comments:
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill say they are also concerned that terrorist propaganda is being taught in UNRWA schools.
And what are the lawmakers DOING about it? Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zeebee. Zero.
"There have been several high-profile examples of terrorists being employed by UNRWA. Former top Islamic Jihad rocket maker Awad Al-Qiq, who was killed in an Israeli air strike last May, was the headmaster and science instructor at an UNRWA school in Rafah, Gaza. Said Siyam, Hamas' interior minister and head of the Executive Force, was a teacher for over two decades in UNRWA schools."
Outrage indeed.
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