Sami Abu Zuhri
Sami Abu ZuhriReuters

Hamas on Monday welcomed a UN report which blamed the Israeli military for seven attacks on UN schools in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.

The group’s spokesman told the AFP news agency that the report was important since it proved Israeli "war crimes against Palestinian civilians in the (UNRWA) shelters."

"We call on the world to send the murderous occupation (Israel) leaders to international courts, and we call on the (Palestinian) Authority to investigate this report and to persecute the occupation (Israel) in international courts," the spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said.

In a letter to the Security Council which accompanied the report, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "I deplore the fact that at least 44 Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli actions and at least 227 injured at United Nations premises being used as emergency shelters."

A detailed study after Operation Protective Edge proved 49% of the casualties in Gaza were terrorists, meaning the IDF achieved a 1:1 civilian to combatant ratio almost unprecedented in urban warfare.

No fewer than three United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools were found, during the course of Israel’s 50-day Operation Protective Edge, to be serving for storage of rockets for the terrorist organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad. 

After the first finding of rockets at an UNRWA school, it was reported that rather than destroying the rockets, UNRWA workers called Hamas to come remove them to use in their terror war on Israeli civilians.

In another incident, three IDF soldiers were killed and seven others wounded in a booby-trapped UN clinic that was situated on top of terror tunnel entrances, showing the complicity of the UN in Gaza-based terror against Israel.

Monday’s UN report also shed light on the discovery of weapons caches at the three schools, noted AFP.

The schools were vacant at the time but Ban noted that "the fact that they were used by those involved in the fighting to store their weaponry and, in two cases, probably to fire from, is unacceptable."

The UN chief urged Palestinian authorities to investigate.

Hamas rejected the notion that three UNRWA facilities were used as weapon caches.

"We deny having any information about any weapons in the three UNRWA schools, which were empty from refugees, according to the report," Abu Zuhri said.