The top Hamas commander killed in Lebanon was a UNRWA employee who was placed on administrative leave

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said a senior Hamas commander killed in Lebanon on Monday was one of its employees but had been suspended since allegations emerged in March about his ties to the militant group.

Fatah Sharif's ties to Hamas are likely to increase pressure on UNRWA, which is already facing an $80 million funding deficit this year. Critics have repeatedly criticized the agency, saying it is not doing enough to root out Hamas militants from its ranks.

Since then, the United Nations' internal monitoring agency has been investigating UNRWA Israel indicted in January Twelve of his employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which armed militants killed 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 others. The allegations led to more than a dozen donor countries halting their funding, leading to an initial liquidity shortfall of around $450 million. Since then, all donor countries except the United States have decided to resume funding for the organization.

Hamas said Sharif was killed along with his wife, son and daughter in an airstrike on the Al-Buss refugee camp in the southern port city of Tyre, one of 12 camps for Palestinian refugees in the country. The Israeli military confirmed it was targeting him.

Sharif has not been open about his affiliation with the group and its armed wing.

Israel has previously claimed UNRWA was infiltrated by the Palestinian militant group.

Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva posted on He was a school principal and head of the @UNRWA teachers' association in Lebanon.”

The mission added: “This case proves that there is a deep problem at @UNRWA, namely the way they carefully consider who they hire.”

UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said he learned of the allegations in March that Sharif was “a member of the Hamas political party” and decided to suspend him and launch an investigation “from day one.”

Lazzarini said he had only heard on Monday that Sharif could be a Hamas “commander.”

“So he was suspended, had no role, was not paid and was under investigation,” Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva. “We are still a due process agency – I mean, we respect due process and the rule of law. “So the investigation was still ongoing.”

Lazzarini said he had received a letter from Israeli authorities listing the names of about 100 people allegedly linked to Hamas and that he was taking it “very seriously.” However, he said that Israeli authorities never responded to UNRWA's requests for further information so that it could launch investigations into these cases.

“A list is not proof of anything,” he said.

A Hamas statement praised Sharif for his “educational and jihadist work” and called him “a successful teacher and an outstanding principal” for generations of Palestinian refugees.

The UNRWA teachers' union and other Palestinian groups had staged regular protests outside the U.N. agency's Beirut office since Sharif's suspension, claiming they were targeting him because of his political positions. Earlier this month, the union staged a sit-in during Lazzarini's visit to Lebanon, saying it expected “positive and fair results” in the event of his suspension.

Israel has sharply criticized UNRWA and Lazzarini's leadership.

In July, David Mencer, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, said: shouted the long-time Swiss diplomat “One of the villains, a sympathizer of terrorism, an enabler of the murder of Jews, a liar.”

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric responded that the comments were “reprehensible” and threatening.

UNRWA has 32,000 staff in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, including 13,000 in Gaza, providing education, health care, nutrition and other services to several million Palestinians and their families.

Its facilities in Gaza, where thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge, have been repeatedly attacked. Lazzarini said 223 UNRWA staff were killed during the war in Gaza, a number the United Nations said was the highest ever for the world body's staff in a single conflict.

According to the Israeli government, 41,615 people were killed in the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip Ministry of Health for Gaza which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

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Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.