Top Hamas commander killed in Lebanon was U.N. relief agency employee
GENEVA — The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said a top Hamas commander killed in Lebanon on Monday was one of its employees but had been suspended since allegations of his ties to the militant group emerged in March.
Fatah Sharif’s connection to Hamas appeared set to ratchet up pressure on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency,
already facing an $80-million funding shortfall this year. Critics have repeatedly blasted the agency, saying it wasn’t doing enough to root out Hamas militants from its ranks.
The U.N.’s internal watchdog has been investigating UNRWA since Israel in January accused 12 of its staffers of being involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which armed militants killed 1,200 people and abducted some 250 others. The allegations led more than a dozen donor countries to suspend their funding, causing an initial cash crunch of about $450 million. Since then, all donor countries except for the United States have decided to resume funding the agency.
Hamas said Sharif was killed with his wife, son and daughter in an airstrike on El Buss refugee camp, one of 12 dedicated to Palestinian refugees in the country, in the southern port city of Tyre. The Israeli military confirmed it had targeted him.
The U.N. says it has fired additional staff members from its agency for Palestinian refugees after an internal investigation found they may have been involved in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack against Israel.
Sharif was not open about his affiliation with the group and its armed wing.
Israel previously alleged that UNRWA has been infiltrated by the Palestinian militant group.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva said on the social site X that Sharif’s death was announced by Hamas and noted: “And guess what was the second job of Mr Sharif? He was a principal, head of @UNRWA teachers association in Lebanon.”
The mission added: “This case proves that there is a deep problem in @UNRWA, the way they do due diligence about who they are hiring.”
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said he learned in March of allegations that Sharif had been a “member of the political party of Hamas” and decided to suspend him and launch an investigation “from day one.”
Lazzarini said he hadn’t heard Sharif might be a Hamas “commander” until Monday.
Israelis who were taken hostage or lost loved ones during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack are suing the United Nations agency that aids Palestinians.
“So he was suspended, had no function, was not paid and was under investigation,” Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva. “We are still an agency with due process — I mean, respecting due process and the principle of rule of law. So the investigation was ongoing.”
Lazzarini said he had received a letter from Israeli authorities listing the names of some 100 people allegedly linked to Hamas, and he took it “very seriously.” But he said Israeli authorities never responded to UNRWA requests for more information so that the agency might launch investigations into those cases.
“A list is not proof of anything,” he said.
A Hamas statement praised Sharif for his “educational and jihadist work” and called him “a successful teacher and an outstanding principal” for generations of Palestinian refugees.
The UNRWA teachers union and other Palestinian groups had periodically staged protests in front of the U.N. agency’s office in Beirut since Sharif’s suspension, alleging it targeted him for his political stances. Earlier this month, the union staged a sit-in during a visit to Lebanon by Lazzarini, saying it awaited “positive and fair outcomes” in the case of Sharif’s suspension.
Israel has been sharply critical of UNRWA and Lazzarini’s leadership.
Israel’s allegations that 12 employees of a U.N. agency were involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack have led several Western countries to cut off funding.
In July, David Mencer, a spokesman in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, called the longtime Swiss diplomat “one of the bad guys, a terrorist sympathizer, a Jew-killing enabler, a liar.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric responded by saying the comments were “reprehensible” and threatening.
UNRWA employs 32,000 staffer in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, including 13,000 in Gaza who provide education, healthcare, food and other services to several million Palestinians and their families.
Its facilities in Gaza, where thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter, have been repeatedly attacked. Lazzarini said 223 UNRWA staffers have been killed in Gaza during the war, a toll that the United Nations says is the highest in a single conflict for employees of the world body.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed 41,615, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Keaten writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press Writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.
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