Hamas Commander In Lebanon Killed in Airstrike Also Worked for UNRWA

Jerusalem, 30 September, 2024 (TPS) -- This article has been updated to include confirmation from the Israel Defense Forces.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Monday that the commander of Hamas forces in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif, was killed in an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. He was also an employee of the embattled United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

“Sherif was in charge of coordinating the activities of Hamas from Lebanon with Hezbollah elements, and was also responsible for the organization’s strengthening efforts in Lebanon in the field of recruiting operatives and purchasing weapons,” the IDF said.

Sherif was the principal of UNRWA’s Deir Yassin School in Tyre and also headed the UNRWA teacher’s union in Lebanon. UNRWA placed Sherif on administrative leave in March without publicly specifying why. Thousands of Palestinian students in Lebanese UNRWA schools went on strike and held sit-ins in protest.

UNRWA, which supports Palestinian refugees, has been under fire for months, with Israeli officials demanding the agency be stripped of its authority in Gaza and defunded amid revelations that members of the agency’s staff participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks. The Israeli government is bypassing UNRWA in distributing humanitarian aid and advancing legislation to label the agency as a terror organization and remove its diplomatic immunity, tax-exempt status and other legal benefits.

More than 100 survivors of Hamas’s October 7 attacks filed a $1 billion lawsuit against UNRWA in June, accusing the agency of “aiding and abetting” the terror group. According to the suit, the lead plaintiff, 84-year-old Ditza Heiman of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was held captive for seven weeks in the home of a Palestinian man who said he was a UNRWA teacher at a boy’s school.

Israel’s largest bank froze UNRWA’s account in February over suspicious financial transfers that the agency failed to adequately explain. That same month, Israeli forces discovered a Hamas complex located directly under the UNRWA’s Gaza City headquarters and connected directly to the agency’s electricity system. The facility included numerous computer servers belonging to the terror group.

Palestinian refugees are the only refugee population with its own dedicated.UN agency. The rest of the world’s refugees fall under the mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Israeli officials have called for UNRWA to be closed and for Palestinian refugees to be brought under the responsibility of the UNHCR.

At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.