Hamas compound found under UNRWA Gaza headquarters

The Israeli forces have unearthed a Hamas military installation under the headquarters of the United Nations’s aid agency for Palestinians.

The compound under the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, headquarters in Gaza City appears to be an important communications and intelligence hub for the Islamist group, according to Israeli authorities.

UNRWA is the U.N. agency charged with managing humanitarian problems related to displaced Palestinians, with headquarters in Amman, Jordan, and in Gaza.

Israeli military officials have reportedly suspected the location of this complex for several years but haven’t used airstrikes to target it because it has been shielded by the U.N. presence.

The hub is part of a system of tunnels and subterranean chambers carved throughout the Gaza Strip, which include routes near or under some of the region’s largest hospitals and other civilian facilities.