Killed Hamas leader’s link to UN group revealed

A senior Hamas official killed in an Israeli airstrike has been revealed to also have been a top educator employed by a controversial UN aid organisation.

Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine was killed in Lebanon. Picture: X

EXCLUSIVE

A senior Hamas official killed in an Israeli airstrike Monday has been revealed to also have been a top educator employed by a controversial UN aid organisation that saw its funding from the Albanese government doubled despite its employees’ links to terrorism.

Fateh Sherif, leader of the Hamas terror organisation in Lebanon, was killed this week by an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.

However according to the Times of Israel, Sherif was also principle of the Deir Yassin Secondary School, run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which is charged with providing education and other services to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.

Sherif was also reported to be the head of the UNRWA Teachers Union in Lebanon.

News of Sherif’s death led Hamas to issue a statement praising him as a “martyr” who was “active and vibrant” as well as “brave and courageous”.

The revelations have led to further criticism of the Albanese government’s decision to double Australian taxpayer funding to UNRWA, a move it undertook shortly after taking office.

“It is thoroughly unsurprising to learn yet another Hamas member worked for UNRWA - but this is the most senior one yet,” said Coalition home affairs spokesman Senator James Paterson.

“It’s utterly untenable for anyone to continue to deny the connections between the utterly compromised UNRWA and listed terrorist organisation Hamas.”

Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on a village near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Sunday. Picture: AFP

“This makes the Albanese government’s decision to resume funding UNRWA despite being warned even more scandalous. How can we have any confidence Australian taxpayer funds haven’t found their way into the hands of terrorists?”

Earlier this year UNRWA fired nine Gaza-based staffers for allegedly participating in the October 7 massacres in Israel, while thinktank UN Watch has reported multiple instances of UNRWA employees in Gaza celebrating the atrocities.

One Gaza teacher employed by UNRWA posted online, “Allah is Great, Allah is Great, reality surpasses our wildest dreams” as the massacre was taking place.

Another justified the massacre as “restoring rights” and “redressing” Palestinian “grievances.”

Soon after taking office, the government doubled its funding to UNRWA to $20 million per year, after it was slashed by the previous Coalition government.

In March, Senator Pat Conroy said, “The release of funding for UNRWA, with additional assurances, backs in Australia’s longstanding support for the organisation, recognising its unique position and capability in the region.”

“UNRWA does lifesaving work. That is why successive Australian Governments have funded it since 1951, and it is why the Albanese Government doubled its core funding to UNRWA to $20 million.”