A Hamas commander in Lebanon who was killed in an Israeli airstrike overnight was an accredited member of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the embattled agency confirmed after his death.
Hamas’s Fateh Sherif and his family were killed in an airstrike at a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Tyre, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Monday. “Sherif was responsible for coordinating Hamas’ terror activities in Lebanon with Hezbollah operatives, as well as Hamas’ efforts in Lebanon to recruit operatives and acquire weapons.”
While leading terrorist activities, Sherif also headed the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon. Though employed by the U.N. agency, Sherif was suspended without pay in March due to allegations involving “his political activities,” UNRWA told the Times of Israel in a statement.
At the time of the suspension, UNRWA told Reuters that Sherif had been suspended for three months after the U.N. agency was made aware of allegations about activities “that are in violation of the Agency’s regulatory framework governing staff conduct.”
Sherif’s suspension sparked widespread protests led by teachers outside UNRWA’s Beirut offices. Protesters demanded that he be reinstated.
Since Hamas’s October 7 attack last year, Israel has exposed deep ties between UNRWA and Hamas, revealing that some UNRWA employees even participated in the massacre of 1,200 Israeli civilians and the abduction of 250 hostages on that day.
Israeli intelligence alleged in January that 13 UNRWA employees took part in the October 7 attack, some 190 UNRWA staffers are Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, and about 1,200 UNRWA employees are linked to Hamas. Some UNRWA teachers reportedly held Hamas hostages in their homes. In March, the IDF released audio recordings of at least two employees, one of whom said, “We have female hostages, I captured one!”
In April, an independent review commissioned by the U.N. found that Israel had not yet provided any incriminating evidence to back its claims that a significant number of UNRWA staffers are tied to terrorist organizations. Israel rejected the report’s assertion.
Meanwhile, the U.N. concluded in August that nine UNRWA staffers “may have been involved” in the October 7 massacre of Israeli citizens last year — not very far from Israel’s estimate of those who were complicit in the attack. As a result, the nine employees were terminated.
The U.N. filed a court document this month arguing that the beleaguered agency’s employees are immune from legal action taken against them by the families of October 7 victims, though a spokesperson for U.N. secretary-general António Guterres later clarified that immunity would not extend to staff who were found to have participated in the attack. The U.N.’s immunity claim was backed by the Department of Justice.
The Trump administration cut off UNRWA funding in 2018 after concluding that the organization’s operation was “irredeemably flawed.” Then-U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley led the effort to end the use of taxpayer dollars to fund the organization’s spread of antisemitic hate and terror in the region, which it accomplished in part by distributing textbooks to children that promote hatred of Jews.
The Biden administration reinstated UNRWA funding before suspending it in response to the October 7 attack. The Biden administration has expressed an openness to reinstating the funding once again, but its hands are currently tied by Congress, which put a hold on the money until 2025.
In addition to killing Sherif, Israel eliminated three members of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in central Beirut. This marks the first time in nearly a year that Israel carried out an attack within the Lebanese capital’s city limits.
The latest Israeli airstrikes came days after an earlier attack claimed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s longtime secretary-general. The Iranian-backed terrorist organization has sustained heavy losses to its military chain of command in recent days and has vowed to continue fighting Israel. Another Hezbollah commander, Nabil Qaouk, died in a separate strike over the weekend.
Israeli special forces troops have been conducting targeted raids into southern Lebanon to gather intelligence and prepare the ground for a broader incursion, even as the IDF continues pounding Hezbollah targets with long-range missiles that have now claimed the lives of the militia’s entire senior leadership.
The raids, reported by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, began months ago and involve entering tunnel networks created by the Hezbollah terror group along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel.
Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant told troops in northern Israel on Monday that the military is preparing to invade Lebanon by land, sea, and air.
“The elimination of Nasrallah is a very important step, but it is not the final one. We will employ all the capabilities at our disposal,” Gallant said. “We will use all the means that may be required—your forces, other forces, from the air, from the sea and on land.”
Tensions between Israel and Lebanon have boiled over recently, after a breathtaking Israeli intelligence operation detonated pagers and walkie-talkies being used by thousands of Hezbollah commanders. The explosions have since led both sides to trade rocket fire with each other.
The U.S. and other allies are concerned that the ever-increasing hostilities could lead to an all-out war between Israel and Lebanon amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. Israeli troops are preparing for a potential ground incursion into southern Lebanon, adding to the possibility that a wider regional war will soon break out. Hezbollah has said it’s prepared if the ground offensive proceeds.
To prevent further escalation, the U.S. and France called on Israel and Lebanon to accept an immediate cease-fire lasting 21 days to facilitate diplomatic efforts. Israel rejected the latest proposal, refusing to relent in its fighting with Hezbollah.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden said he would speak with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent an all-out war that Biden says “has to be” avoided.