Lazzarini’s claims of ignorance, and of the purity of UNRWA, strain credulity well beyond the breaking point.
“IDF strike kills Hamas’s Lebanon chief, an UNRWA teacher; 3 PFLP men killed in Beirut,” by Emanuel Fabian, Joshua Davidovich, and Jacob Magid, Times of Israel, September 30, 2024:
Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon and central Beirut overnight killed the top Hamas official in Lebanon and senior members of another Palestinian terror group, the organizations and the Israel Defense Forces said Monday.
Hamas said its leader in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, was killed, along with his wife, son, and daughter, in a strike that targeted their house in a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Tyre early Monday. A statement from the terror group identified him as a “successful teacher and excellent [school] principal.”
The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency in a joint statement confirmed that Sherif, who they described as the “head of the Lebanon branch of the Hamas terror organization,” was killed in the strike.
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.”
He “worked to advance the interests of Hamas in [Lebanon], both politically and militarily,” the statement said.
Reports in Palestinian media said Sherif was head of the teachers’ union for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides education services to nearly 40,000 students in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
UNRWA confirmed to The Times of Israel in a statement that Sherif had been employed by the agency, but noted that he had been suspended in March.
Sherif “was an UNRWA employee who was put on administrative leave without pay in March, and was undergoing an investigation following allegations that UNRWA received about his political activities,” UNRWA said….
“UNRWA chief says he did not know a suspended teacher was Hamas’s leader in Lebanon,” Times of Israel, October 1, 2024:
GENEVA — 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.”
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….
Taffy says
Well now he knows! Is he now investigating every employee of UNRWA and specifically identifying the action taken against those with Hamas, IJ, or Hisb’allah or other terror links? Or is he giving lip service by merely saying “action has been taken?
somehistory says
No real “action was taken” until he was ‘taken out.’
and who can guarantee that the “chief” and the “spokesperson” are not also terror-linked? they demanded immunity.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
In both Gaza & Lebanon, Israel should treat UNRWA(FP) personnel (FP standing for “For Palestine”, which is never a part of the acronym but should be, since it deals exclusively w/ Palis, and transfers refugee status from generation to generation) as if it were a part of Hamas in Gaza or Hizbullah in Lebanon. And then do to them what it did in this case to Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin: kill them! Just wipe out UNRWA, and then if the UN wants to get involved, it will have to be the UNHRC, like it is everywhere else in the world when it comes to refugees
Tony Rice says
Guterres should sack him and then resign himself.