UNRWA chief denies knowing that suspended employee was Hamas leader in Lebanon

The chief of the UN 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, Reuters reports.

The head of Hamas’ Lebanon branch, Abu El-Amin, was killed along with family members in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, the group said on Monday. He was placed under investigation and 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.”

Lazzarini, who briefed press after meeting with UN member states earlier on Monday, said he asked them to “push back on all the reputational attacks 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 organisation a “terrorist body” which has already received preliminary approval. Such a move would be “absolutely unconscionable”, he added.

He also referred to attacks against the Agency in the nearly year-long Gaza war that have killed 223 staff and damaged or destroyed around two-thirds of its facilities.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has for years called for UNRWA to be dismantled, accusing it of anti-Israeli incitement. Previous Israeli allegations of staff ties to Hamas attacks on 7 October led some countries to freeze funding earlier this year, although many of these have now been reversed with the exception of major donor, the United States.

The UN said in August that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the attacks and fired them.

Lazzarini said UNRWA faces an $80 million funding shortfall for this year and 2025 is looking “a little bit grim” as some European countries seek to cut aid budgets.

UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) was established in 1949 and provides relief to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, including in Lebanon where it says up to 250,000 reside.

Israel has repeatedly equated UNRWA staff with Hamas members in efforts to discredit them, providing no proof of the claims, while lobbying hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees. If the agency no longer exists, argues Israel, then the refugee issue must no longer exist, and the legitimate right for Palestinian refugees to return to their land will be unnecessary. Israel has denied that right of return since the late 1940s, even though its own membership of the UN was made conditional upon Palestinian refugees being allowed to return to their homes and land.

Lazzarini said it was using existing shelters for Palestinian refugees to house some of the 1 million people displaced within Lebanon following two weeks of intensive Israeli strikes against Hezbollah.

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