Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN “Palestinian refugee” agency UNRWA, on Monday denied knowing that one of the agency’s employees, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, was a Hamas commander in Lebanon, Reuters reported.
Hamas announced earlier that el-Amin, who led its Lebanon branch, was eliminated in an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon along with family members.
Lazzarini acknowledged that el-Amin had been suspended from his job and put under investigation back in March due to concerns about his affiliations, but added, "The specific allegation at the time was that (he was) a part of the local leadership... I never heard the word commander before. What's obvious for you today, was not obvious yesterday."
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric confirmed that el-Amin had been on unpaid administrative leave since March, immediately after UNRWA received reports about his possible high-level involvement with Hamas.
"As soon as UNRWA received information about his possible involvement with Hamas at a senior level - action was taken," Dujarric explained, as quoted by Reuters. "Every time UNRWA has received information beyond just a name, action has been taken."
He emphasized, "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."
During a press briefing after meeting with UN member states on Monday, Lazzarini called on them to "push back on all the reputational attacks on the agency and the ongoing drafting of bills which could be adopted in Jerusalem."
This statement refers to a move in the Israeli parliament to label UNRWA as a "terrorist body," a proposal that has already passed a preliminary vote. Lazzarini said such a designation would be "absolutely unconscionable."
UNRWA, which has long been criticized for cooperating with Hamas, has come under increased scrutiny as its workers have been found to have been directly involved in Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
Israel said in January of this year that UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 Hamas attacks. It then presented a dossier showing that the UNRWA workers who participated in the Hamas massacre kidnapped a woman, handed out ammunition and actively took part in the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri, where 97 people were murdered.
Following the Israeli revelations, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the creation of a review group, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, to look into the Israeli allegations.
The group released its report in April. The report found neutrality-related issues" in UNRWA but also claimed that Israel had yet to provide evidence for allegations that a significant number of its staff were members of terrorist organizations.
Recently, however, the UN acknowledged for the first time that employees of UNRWA may have been involved in Hamas’ October 7 massacre in Israel.
Lazzarini has resisted Israel’s calls for him to step down,has consistently insisted he had no knowledge of how deep Hamas is involved in UNRWA, and has instead continued to level accusations at Israel, claiming it seeks to “erase UNRWA”.