Israel Calls for Urgent UNRWA Investigation After Hamas Commander Confirmed on Payroll

A man waits outside UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City. (FLASH90/Wissam Nassar) (FLASH90/Wissam Nassar)

The IDF reported that the Hamas commander on UNRWA’s payroll, killed in an Israeli airstrike, was part of the terror group’s elite Nukhba unit.

By By Pesach Benson, TPS

Israel demanded an “urgent investigation” of UNRWA as the agency confirmed on Thursday that a Hamas commander who participated in the October 7 attacks was on its payroll.

The Israel Defense Forces said it killed in an airstrike Mohammad Abu Itiwi, a senior commander from Hamas’s elite Nukhba unit, who was employed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees.

“Following this, our representatives solicited clarifications from senior officials in the @UN and international community and requested an urgent investigation into the involvement of @UNRWA employees in the October 7th Massacre” tweeted the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories unit (COGAT) on Thursday night.

UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma confirmed that Itiwi’s name was included in an Israeli letter in July which identified other Hamas figures on the agency staff.

“The UNRWA commissioner general responded to that letter immediately stating that any allegation is taken seriously. He urged [Israeli officials] to cooperate with the agency by providing more information so he could take action,” Touma said.

UNRWA has been under fire for months, with Israeli officials demanding the agency be stripped of its authority in Gaza and defunded amid revelations that members of the agency’s staff participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks. The Israeli government is bypassing UNRWA in distributing humanitarian aid and advancing legislation to label the agency as a terror organization and remove its diplomatic immunity, tax-exempt status and other legal benefits.

Palestinian refugees are the only refugee population with its own dedicated. UN agency. The rest of the world’s refugees fall under the mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Israeli officials have called for UNRWA to be closed and for Palestinian refugees to be brought under the responsibility of the UNHCR.

In June, more than 100 survivors of Hamas’s October 7 attacks filed a $1 billion lawsuit against UNRWA, accusing the agency of “aiding and abetting” the terror group.

At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.