Israel is furious at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) over a recent decision to back a science chair at a Gaza university it says hosted bomb and missile makers, local media reported Thursday.

UNESCO released a statement this week announcing the inauguration of a chair in the Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences department at the Islamic University of Gaza.

Israel vehemently opposes such a UNESCO stamp of approval, charging that the school is a hub for Hamas militants, including engineers who trained there to manufacture explosives and rockets used against Israel.

Israeli ambassador to the agency, Nimrod Barkan, is set to submit a formal letter of protest Thursday over the organization's decision.

"This is an institution that assists terror and has been involved in terror in the past," Barkan told the Ha'aretz daily. " We don't think it was proper to give a chair with such lack of caution, without even checking the institution first."

In 2008's Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Air Force bombed one of the university's wings, Israel said contained rocket and bomb production labs.

Israeli Foreign Ministry officials view UNESCO's move as politically motivated by the organization's head, Irina Bokova, as part of a re-election campaign for 2013.

"Bokova wants to be elected at any price," a ministry official told the newspaper.

"Third World states have a majority in it, so she's fawning on the Arabs to ensure her re-election. It's another sign of the growing politicization of the UN agency," he alleged, terming the decision "a combination of irresponsibility and lack of judgment."

In comparison, he pointed out, "before UNESCO gave a chair to the Technion and the Interdisciplinary Center (institutions in Haifa and Herzliya, respectively), they checked things with a magnifying glass. In Gaza no one checked."

The relationship between Israel and UNESCO has been on a steady decline, since the organization accepted Palestine as its 195th member several months ago.

Israel deplored the move, one that resulted in the U.S. cutting off funding to the UN body.

As well, the agency last week added the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem to a World Heritage site list, a move which angered Israel, as the body accepted Palestinian claims of Israeli damage to the Christian shrine.

Israel, for its part, sharply denied the Palestinian contention. Israeli officials have noted that, in 2002, a group of Palestinian gunmen took clergymen hostage when they barricaded themselves within the building Christians traditionally believe was built over Jesus' birthplace.