Last week, Israeli forces uncovered an underground Hamas-run data centre beneath the headquarters of a United Nations agency in Gaza City. This discovery was shocking, but sadly not surprising.

The UN agency in question was UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). Over the weekend, the IDF said it had found an entrance to an underground tunnel on the outskirts of the UNRWA’s Gaza City compound, next to an UNRWA-run school, which led to the secret Hamas complex. The data centre reportedly included several computer-server cabinets, an electrical room and industrial batteries to allow the tunnels to run off-grid if necessary. Hamas is said to have used it for intelligence gathering, data processing and communications. There were also meeting rooms and living quarters. The whole complex measured 18 metres deep and 700 metres long.

UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini quickly put out a statement on X denying that his agency had any knowledge of the data centre. He emphasised that UNRWA staff had left its headquarters on 12 October after being given evacuation orders by the Israeli authorities.