Emily Damari: Freed British-Israeli hostage tells PM she was held in UNRWA facilities and denied access to medical care

9 comments

1. I’ve told this story in comments before on this forum, but I’ve personally (IDF reservist here) been part of a raid on UNRWA headquarters in Gaza, and we have found a UAV in one of the offices. There were a whole lot of other weapons, a bunch of armed terrorists, but the drone shocked me.
   It was a suicide UAV of the type used by Russia in Ukraine, just being prepared for attack inside the main office of a UN organisation.
   In my day job I often work with other UN organisations and I was just floored.

   It’s been published but didn’t get the echo it should have. UNRWA cannot be redeemed.

   [https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-it-found-hamas-command-room-in-unrwa-hq-alongside-drone-weapons-caches/](https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-it-found-hamas-command-room-in-unrwa-hq-alongside-drone-weapons-caches/)

2. That’s not surprising since Israel has destroyed almost every single hospital in Gaza. How exactly is anyone meant to receive medical treatment, hostage or otherwise?

3. It is pretty hard to deny how rotten unwra has gotten even if we acknowledge its role in providing aid. However I wish the same attention was paid to Israel’s 60 year crime of abusing and terrorizing their subjects into an increasingly marginal existence. 

   That is why suggestions to gut unwra while ignoring building a future for Palestinian children free from state sanctioned terrorism and land stealing is hollow. 

   You cannot acknowledge how rotten unrwa is without also addressing how rotten a brutal occupier has become. 

4. Was planning on posting this myself, once again, the thing that people keep saying Israel lies about turns out to be true. Even in the best case scenario, UNRWA is still complicit in terrorism by having their facilities used for such purposes ***REPEATEDLY***.

   Safe to say it’s time someone that actually does their job replaces them

5. Shames, desolates and angers me that my tax € go to fund UNRWA, and thus help Hamas build rocket launchers and mount raids on music festivals and villages.

6. I can believe UNRWA is flawed. Hamas are terrorists, the UNRWA has to work with some people locally and many people in the area hate Israel.

   Unfortunately I don’t think Israel would accept any organisation that provided aid to Palestinians so I’m extremely skeptical. The long term goal is to displace them.

7. Pretty quick swap from “Hamas gave the hostages amazing quality of life and healthcare” to “well it’s Israels fault these freedom fighters had to capture and hold these hostages in inhumane conditions”

8. UNRWA has been in a really difficult position in Palestine. In order to do any kind of effective aid, they needed to both have the trust of the local populace and cooperate with the local government. This is usually done by hiring locals and integrating into the community, and more or less complying with whatever the government requests as long as it’s not too outrageous. It’s been shown numerous times what happens when you don’t have both of those things, and it’s always a disaster for the people, the aid workers, and the reputation of the UN (which also makes future aid even harder).

   This gets trickier when the ruling local government is a militant organization that is actively hostile with their neighbor and has wide popular support. Doubly so when said neighbor is a strong western ally (for better or worse). Everything they do will be scrutinized and suspected. It’s hard to stay neutral when many of their own aid workers are locals that may support or even be involved with that organization. Next thing you know that neighbor is claiming their facilities are valid military targets.

   I do not envy UNRWA’s current situation at all.

9. 1) Source is Sky News

   2) OP acts like an Israel shill, look at posting history. He has like 40 comments in this thread alone. Everything he posts about Israel is repeating IDF/government talking points, always. And he does it a lot. ANd he doesnt post about anything else ever.

   3) Anything Israel says is likely a lie or distortion of truth, until proven otherwise

   4) This is more Israeli propaganda against UNRWA, whom they successfully launched a campaign of lies and exxageration in order to try to get it shut down.

   5) They were largely successful, UNRWA has been forced to shut down most of its facilities in Gaza since Israel lobbied successfully for a funding freeze in Oct. 2024. Almost all UNRWA staff have been withdrawn from all Gaza already, and all locations were evacuated of employees

   6) #5 proves exactly why #3 and #4 are true. There is no evidence whatsoever and it is very unlikely that the UNRWA facility was still operational or that any UNRWA staff were present or aware of this. This is critical.
   7) Meaning Hamas used an empty/evacuated building to temporarily hide hostages, without the knowledge or approval of UNRWA. Now compare that to the headline, and the incessant braying of the Israel shills in this thread, to understand why #3 is so true.

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