The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unwra) has denied any knowledge that Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, an employee of the agency recently killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon, was a Hamas commander.

“The specific allegation at the time was that he was part of the local leadership… I never heard the word commander before,” Philippe Lazzarini stated.

“What’s obvious for you today was not obvious yesterday,” he told reporters in Geneva.

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 Hamas identified him as a “successful teacher and excellent [school] principal”.

Abu el-Amin was “who was put on administrative leave without pay in March, and was undergoing an investigation following allegations that Unwra received about his political activities,” Unwra said.

In July, Israel’s foreign ministry released a list of 108 Unwra employees, identified by name and ID number, whom they claimed were also Hamas terrorists.

A Foreign Ministry official described this as a “small fraction” of a much larger list, which allegedly includes hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members working for Unwra. However, the broader list remains undisclosed due to security concerns.

“Israel has told donor countries that hundreds more of Unwra’s 13,000 local staff are active Hamas terrorists, including school teachers,” Israeli government spokesman David Mencer told reporters in July.

Earlier this year, the NGO UN Watch highlighted Abu el-Amin’s roles within Unwra, including as principal of Deir Yassin Secondary School and head of the teachers’ union in Lebanon, overseeing 39,000 students in 65 schools.

In July, the Knesset passed a bill to make it illegal for Israel to engage with Unwra, complicating the agency’s operations in Gaza. However, the bill did not advance and may be replaced with another proposing to ban Unwra activities in Israeli territory.

Following allegations about Unwra employees’ ties to terrorism, several Western countries suspended funding though many, including the UK, resumed it following investigations.

In August, Lazzarini announced the dismissal of nine employees for potential involvement in the October 7 Hamas-led massacre.

Israeli officials, including UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, criticised the probe and called for the agency to be dismantled.

Unwra grants refugee status to descendants of those who fled pre-state Israel, unlike other refugees. Critics argue this unnecessarily perpetuates the Palestinian refugee issue and undermines Israel’s legitimacy as a state.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters: "As soon as information was received – in this case, from the Israeli government – action was taken. Every time Unwra 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.