A United Nations worker who served as Hamas’ regional chief was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon on Monday, along with three leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, officials said.
Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, the man in charge of Hamas’ Lebanon branch, was killed with his wife, son and daughter after a strike hit their home at a Palestinian refugee camp in Tyre, according to the terror group.
Following his death, it was revealed that Abu el-Amin worked for the embattled UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which has been under fire following reports that at least a dozen of its staffers assisted in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
He had been the principal of the UNRWA-operated Deir Yassin Secondary School in al-Bass.
In March, Abu el-Amin was suspended without leave after the agency received “allegations … about his political activities,” it told the Times of Israel.
Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin was killed, along with his wife, son and daughter, in a strike that targeted their house in a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Tyre. @Israel/X
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has repeatedly denied allegations that the humanitarian group is closely aligned with Hamas’ military branch.
Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva on Monday that Abu el-Amin was suspended without pay following allegations about his politics, and that the UNRWA was never made aware of his high-ranking position within Hamas.
“I never heard the word commander before,” he told reporters. “What’s obvious for you today was not obvious yesterday.
In August, the UN said nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the attacks and were fired.
A separate airstrike in Beirut’s Kola district on Monday took out the three PFLP leaders, who were not immediately named, while they were inside an apartment building, witnesses said.
The strike hit the upper floor of an apartment building. AFP via Getty ImagesThe PFLP is another terrorist group operating in the region that is fighting against Israel over the war in Gaza.
The airstrikes were among the latest back-and-forth assaults between the IDF and Hezbollah that have intensified following the death of the terror group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday.
An estimated 1,000 Lebanese citizens have been killed and another 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.
Much like Hamas, the Lebanese government did not differentiate between civilian and terrorist in their report.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said three of its leaders were killed in a strike that targeted Beirut’s Kola district. AFP via Getty Images
Israel has vowed to keep up the assault and says it wants to make its northern areas secure again for residents who have been forced to flee Hezbollah rocket attacks. via REUTERSThe intense battles have caused a million people to flee southern Lebanon, officials said, with tens of thousands of Israelis already evacuated from northern Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has faced mounting pressure over the displacements, has vowed that Israelis will be able to return to the north once the IDF concludes its operations in Lebanon.
To that end, reports emerged Monday that the Israeli military is preparing for an imminent invasion into southern Lebanon to dismantle Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure.
The US government has allegedly been made aware of the plan, with President Joe Biden reiterating that all-war must not break out in the Middle East.
With Post wires
