Geneva, Switzerland (DT) — The head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) on Monday denied knowing that its employee Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin was a Hamas commander in Lebanon, and called on states to push back against Israeli attacks on the agency’s reputation.
The head of Hamas’s Lebanon branch, Abu el-Amin was killed along with family members in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, the Palestinian terror group said on Monday. A statement from the terror group identified him as a “successful teacher and excellent [school] principal.”
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Abu el-Amin was suspended from his job at UNRWA in March following allegations concerning his politics, Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva.
“The specific allegation at the time was that [he was] a part of the local leadership… I never heard the word commander before,” he said. “What’s obvious for you today, was not obvious yesterday.”
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said el-Amin had been on administrative leave without pay since March — “as soon as UNRWA received information about his possible involvement with Hamas at a senior level” — and had never been reinstated.
“As soon as information was received — in this case, from the Israeli government — action was taken,” Dujarric told reporters. “Every time UNRWA has received information beyond just a name, action has been taken.”
“Anyone who works for the UN and engages in terror, terror-like activity is unacceptable and outrageous and an insult to all UN staff members around the world,” he said.
In a statement to the Times of Israel, UNRWA said Sherif was undergoing an investigation following allegations that UNRWA received about his “political activities.”
Lazzarini, who briefed the press after meeting with UN member states earlier on Monday, said he asked them to “push back on all the reputation attack on the agency and the ongoing drafting of bills which could be adopted in Jerusalem.”
He was referring to a move by Israeli parliament to declare the organization a “terrorist body,” which has already received preliminary approval. Such a move would be “absolutely unconscionable,” he added.
UNRWA has been in hot water for the past year over evidence of members’ involvement in terror activities. Israel has alleged that at least 12 of UNRWA’s employees were directly involved in Hamas’s October 7 atrocities, another 30 assisted or facilitated those crimes, and as much as 12 percent of the organization’s staff in Gaza — over 1,000 people — are affiliated with terror organizations.
According to the military, Sherif was responsible for coordinating Hamas’s activity in Lebanon with Hezbollah, as well as Hamas’s “force build-up efforts in Lebanon, in the field of recruiting operatives and procuring weapons.”
Sherif’s suspension in March sparked demonstrations and strikes by teachers demanding his reinstatement.
The Palestinian Refugees Portal news site reported in early June that Sherif was set to be reinstated, citing a press release from a Damascus-based group representing Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon that said an arrangement had been found to drop the probe and end the teacher strike.
UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) was established in 1949 and provides relief to Palestinians considered refugees across the Middle East, including in Lebanon where it says up to 250,000 reside.
The only UN refugee agency established for a specific people, it has come under criticism for bestowing the status not just on those who lost their homes in 1948, but to all their descendants as well — a practice unheard of elsewhere. Israel and its supporters say this encourages an enduring victimhood mentality and narrative in Palestinians and increases their dependence on aid.
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