For years Israel was mocked for insisting that Hamas used UNRWA schools as shields. Now the evidence is undeniable, and the silence from Turtle Bay is deafening.
In a Nutshell
For nearly a decade, Israel has warned that UNRWA facilities in Gaza were not the neutral sanctuaries the international community pretended they were. Teachers were found promoting jihad in classrooms. Warehouses were raided by militants. And beneath the very feet of children sat a subterranean empire of tunnels constructed with stolen aid and pointed like daggers at Israeli civilians. The response from the United Nations, and much of the Western press, was predictable: dismissal, denial, and weary accusations of “Israeli propaganda.”
But in July 2025, Human Rights Watch released a report that ended the debate. Satellite images and eyewitness accounts confirmed what had long been whispered: Hamas’s tunnel network ran directly beneath UNRWA schools and aid depots. The “blue flag” of the United Nations was not a shield of neutrality. It was camouflage for terror.
Human Rights Watch (July 2025):
“Evidence indicates that Hamas’s tunnel network runs beneath UNRWA schools and facilities.”
Source: HRW
The reaction in New York was as muted as it was predictable. UNRWA claimed it “had no knowledge.” Donors, faced with photographic proof, offered platitudes about “monitoring.” Yet the truth is unambiguous. Billions in aid, channelled through UN agencies, were converted into cement, steel, and engineering marvels of subterranean warfare. The bread of children was transubstantiated into rockets. And the UN was not merely a bystander, it was a landlord.
Mainstream outlets, faced with evidence they could no longer ignore, still chose caution over clarity. The BBC described the tunnels as “allegations Israel has long made, now under scrutiny.” The Guardian spoke of “claims that remain disputed.” CNN, as if struggling with the obvious, referred to them as “new concerns.” Euphemism became the final line of defence, an attempt to preserve the illusion of humanitarian nobility.
Meanwhile, in Sudan, millions starve. In Myanmar, Rohingya villages burn. In Ethiopia, children waste away. There are no tunnels there to complicate the narrative, no ready-made story of villainy to fit Western preconceptions. Their suffering remains offstage, while Gaza dominates the performance. The selectivity is no accident.
What makes the hypocrisy grotesque is not simply the tunnels themselves, but the fact that the truth was known. Israel’s warnings were not secrets. UNRWA’s own admissions date back to 2017, when tunnels were discovered beneath its schools. Donors looked away. Agencies excused themselves. And the press dismissed it as propaganda. Human Rights Watch’s report, landing years too late, is less revelation than obituary: the death of any pretence of innocence.
History teaches that institutions rarely reform themselves. The fantasy is that this exposure will finally dismantle UNRWA, that aid will bypass the machinery of Hamas, and that children in Gaza will inherit food rather than tunnels. The reality is likely more familiar. The UN will issue statements, the media will move on, and billions more will be spent sustaining the cycle.
But for those willing to see, clarity is available. Famine is not fate, and tunnels do not dig themselves. They are built by men, funded by institutions, and concealed by silence. To describe this as “tragic” is to miss the point. It is not tragedy. It is theatre performed at the expense of the vulnerable, and applauded by those who prefer illusion to truth.
The Guardian (July 2025):
“Israel’s claims about tunnels remain disputed.”
[Source: Guardian]
The Merlow View
This is not simply a story of tunnels. It is the story of how the world allows institutions to become accomplices. The Ottoman blockade of Mount Lebanon a century ago starved Christians into submission while Europe looked away. Stalin’s Holodomor starved Ukraine while foreign journalists praised Soviet progress. In every age, institutions have masked atrocity with theatre. UNRWA’s Gaza is only the latest stage.
The choice before us is whether we continue watching, mouthing the lines about “humanity’s failure,” or whether we step into the cold light of truth: that institutions failed, that corruption thrives, and that children starve not because the world is cruel, but because those entrusted to protect them betrayed their trust.
The invitation is simple. Look past the flag, the acronyms, the carefully worded press releases. Ask who benefits, who builds, who starves. See the theatre for what it is. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it and perhaps, at last, the illusion begins to crumble.
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