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A United Nations employee inspects the damage at a recreation facility in the central Gaza Strip after it was attacked by gunmen - Source: Reuters
Masked Palestinian gunmen set fire to a UN-run summer camp in
Gaza, officials and witnesses said, the second time in recent weeks
that militants have attacked a United Nations Relief and Works
Agency (UNRWA) children's camp in the Hamas-controlled
territory.
About 25 militants stormed the recreation facility and assaulted
security guards before setting the building on fire, UN spokesman
Adnan Abu Hasna said.
In May, gunmen set a building on fire after accusing the United
Nations of promoting immorality in the Islamist-ruled
enclave.
John Ging, UNRWA's director of operations in the Gaza Strip, said
Monday's attack was a cowardly and despicable act.
"UNRWA will rebuild the camp immediately and will continue with its
Summer Games programme which is so important for the physical and
psychological well-being of Gaza's children, so many of whom are
stressed and traumatised by their circumstances and experiences,"
he said in a statement.
Hamas officials had no immediate comment.
Fundamentalist Muslims, or Salafis - whose agenda of global or holy
war against the West conflicts with Hamas's nationalist goals -
have stepped up attacks in the Gaza Strip over the past several
months, targeting Hamas security men and offices.
Hamas itself has also clamped down on behaviour and events it views
as immoral and in April sent its security forces to break up Gaza's
first major hip-hop concert.
The Islamist group wrested control of the Gaza Strip from
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah movement in
fighting in 2007.
Israel, together with Egypt, tightened its blockade on the territory after Hamas took over.
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