A spokesman for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees savaged a pro-Israeli writer and journalist who claimed his organisation had been sheltering weapons for Hamas militants.

Chris Gunness, spokesperson for UNRWA, said he had gone through a film by David Bedein, director of the Centre for Near East Policy Research, in which the claims were made against UNRWA, “frame by frame”.

“This is joke journalism on a Noddy network and it astonishes me that Fox News can give credibility and airtime to a catalogue of falsehoods,” Mr Gunness said of claims that UNRWA had been complicit in Hamas storing rockets in its schools.

Mr Gunness, who became a familiar face to viewers during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza earlier this year, said the only reason the world knew about Hamas weapons being stored in UNRWA schools was because UNRWA had discovered them, condemned Hamas and alerted the relevant authorities, including Israel.

“We proactively condemned as a flagrant violation of our neutrality the hiding of these weapons in our schools,” he added.

You can watch the full exchange below: