We were dismayed by the vehemence and illogic of the State Department’s rebuke of Israel over the damage done to facilities run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and attendant casualties among Gazans who had been seeking shelter in those buildings.
Even as Israel was in the early stages of internal probes – it opened more than 100 investigations – into whether there were possible deviations from IDF/IAF rules of engagement, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said last Thursday, “We are horrified by the strikes that hit UNRWA facilities.”
Making matters worse, her comment came in answer to a question about the U.S. position on a report by Human Rights Watch released just a few hours earlier that accused Israel of committing war crimes by allegedly targeting three UNRWA schools.
Moreover, Ms. Harf – despite widespread reports that Hamas had indeed co-opted UN facilities – summarily dismissed Israel’s claim that the schools had been used by Hamas for weapons storage and launching sites for rockets aimed at Israel and that the IAF was seeking to target terrorists when the buildings were hit.
Indeed, Ms. Harf herself emphasized in her statement that “UNRWA facilities must not be used for military purposes, as some were by Hamas, and that they should not use civilians to shield fighters.”
But she then followed up with a non sequitur:
But also at the same time the suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians. Israeli authorities say they’re investigating. We expect these to be investigated thoroughly and promptly, and we’ll continue pushing them to do so.
Even UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged Hamas’s misuse of UN buildings for military purposes observing, as The Jerusalem Post reported, “that such crimes turned UN facilities into legitimate military targets, inviting Israeli air strikes.”
The reality, though, is that the Israeli “war crimes” scenario will likely be played out among highly partisan UN agencies, NGOs, and perhaps even the International Criminal Court. In this connection, it is noteworthy that a number of U.S. senators have demanded an investigation into the relationship between Hamas and UNWRA. They have accused UNRWA of maintaining continuing and extensive ties with Hamas and of supporting its activities in the course of Operation Protective Edge. They have even suggested UNRWA returned rockets and other weapons discovered in UNRWA sites to Hamas.
As a matter of U.S. law, there are severe restrictions on funding UN agencies that support Hamas, which is designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. We hope our elected representatives will hold UNWRA’s feet to the fire and that the State Department’s ill-advised anti-Israel broadside will be neutralized by an official highlighting of the close connection between UNRWA and Hamas’s war effort.