Hamas leader killed in Lebanon was UN employee, agency confirms
A U.N. aid group confirmed Hamas’ leader in Lebanon, who was recently killed by Israeli strikes, was their employee.
Fateh Sherif was killed Monday in an airstrike on the al-Bass refugee camp in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, along with his wife and children.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) noted that Sherif had been on suspension with the organization since March but had not been fired.
"Fateh Al Sharif 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," an UNRWA spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
At the time, his suspension sparked widespread protests and strikes by teachers in Lebanon.
"Sherif was responsible for coordinating Hamas' terror activities in Lebanon with Hezbollah operatives. He was also responsible for Hamas’ efforts in Lebanon to recruit operatives and acquire weapons," the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and Israeli Security Agency (ISA) said in a joint statement.
"He led the Hamas terrorist organization's force build-up efforts in Lebanon and operated to advance Hamas' interests in Lebanon, both politically and militarily."
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Israel alleges UNRWA is overrun with terrorist sympathizers, a claim the agency denies.
Sherif was the principal of the UNRWA-run Deir Yassin Secondary School in al-Bass and head of the UNRWA teachers’ union, which has around 2,000 teachers.
"Through that position, and as principal of a large UNRWA school, he was able to recruit operatives, and to brainwash generations of Palestinians to engage in terrorism," Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, told Fox News Digital.
Neuer and his organization had long pushed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini to fire Sherif and said they provided both with a dossier proving his involvement in Hamas.
"Everyone at UNRWA knew. Yet they refused to act," Neuer said.
"Even as school principal al-Sharif openly incited terrorism on social media for over a decade, UNRWA did nothing. They failed to fire or even condemn their school principal for being a Hamas terror chief. Only this year, when there was intense scrutiny of UNRWA, did they finally slap him on the wrist with a suspension – while for months insisting that they were conducting ‘an investigation.’"
The Sherif killing unfolded as another terrorist group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said three of its leaders were killed in an airstrike that hit the upper floor of an apartment building in Beirut, according to Reuters.
Israeli officials said Monday they will "continue to operate against anyone who poses a threat to the civilians of the State of Israel."
Israel over the past few days has expanded its attacks on Iran-backed militant groups in the region, also killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike over the weekend.
While it weighs a full-on ground offensive, the IDF has been launching small special forces operations in southern Lebanon.
A reported Israeli airstrike hit central Beirut, the first strike at the heart of the capital since 2006, in an escalation of the bombing that local officials say has killed more than 1,000 in Lebanon.
Iran has vowed Israel’s "criminal acts" would not go unanswered, while President Biden has insisted all-out war in the Middle East "must be avoided."