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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Third time's the charm! Rockets found yet AGAIN in UNRWA school (ElderToon)

From Reuters:
The United Nations agency that looks after Palestinian refugees said on Tuesday it had found a cache of rockets at one of its schools in the Gaza Strip and deplored those who had put them there.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman Chris Gunness condemned those responsible for placing civilians in harm's way by storing the rockets at the school but he did not specifically blame any particular party.

"We condemn the group or groups who endangered civilians by placing these munitions in our school. This is yet another flagrant violation of the neutrality of our premises. We call on all the warring parties to respect the inviolability of U.N. property," Gunness said in a statement.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week expressed alarm at the discovery of 20 rockets at a vacant UNRWA school and at another school a week before that.

Gunness said the body had called in a U.N. munitions expert to dispose of the rockets and make the school premises safe, and added that he could not get to the site due to fighting in the area.
Gaza has UN munitions experts? Which UN agency, specifically, does he work for?

And where was he the first two times? Did UNRWA bring one in through the Erez crossing after the discovery of the third cache? Has he just been hanging out a hotel in Gaza waiting for a chance to serve?

Forgive me if this story sounds fishy, especially after the debacle of the first two school rocket caches (the first went to Hamas, the second disappeared and probably ended up with Hamas.) Suddenly finding a UN explosives expert in Gaza seems awfully convenient.

Anyway, the big question is how this keeps happening. But I think Chris Gunness has his own ideas about that.


(h/t lots of people)