UN employed Hamas terrorists in schools in Gaza, show docs seized by Israel

The United Nations (UN) agency for Palestinians employed terrorists from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in its schools in the Gaza Strip, according to documents of Hamas recovered by Israel and reviewed by The New York Times.

For more than a decade, Israel has been frustrated at the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for its failure to check the infiltration of terrorists among its ranks. Israel has said that several UNRWA staffers were part of the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel as well.

The documents reviewed by The Times show that at least 24 Hamas and PIJ terrorists, including those holding command positions, were on the UNRWA’s payroll.

Israel has maintained for a long time that Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups have infested the UNRWA and have long used UN facilities, including schools, to store weapons, shelter terrorists, and launch rockets at Israel.

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The Hamas is known to maintain extensive records of its personnel, tracking weapons issued to them and regularly documenting the evolution of personnel on various parameters ranging from fitness to loyalty, according to the newspaper.

UN employed terrorists at top posts in schools, show docs

It is not that the Hamas and PIJ terrorists were junior staffers of UNRWA.

The Times reported that most of the terrorists employed by the UNRWA were principals or deputy principals at UN-run schools and the rest were school counselors and teachers.

The newspaper reported that one Ahmad al-Khatib, a deputy principal at a UN-run elementary school in Gaza, was mentioned in the Hamas’ documents as a squad commander in Khan Younis. The documents said that he was an expert in ground combat and had been issued at least a dozen weapons, including a Kalashnikov rifle and hand grenades.

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Such terrorists were employed by the UN in at least 24 of its 288 schools in Gaza, according to the newspaper.

In addition to revealing the terrorists’ recruitment, the documents also showed that two schools were notably used to hide and stash weapons, as per the newspaper.

UN employing terrorists an open secret, say locals

Residents of Gaza told The Times that Hamas terrorists being employed at UN-run schools was an open secret across Gaza.

The newspaper reported that one Hamas terrorist on UN’s payroll was regularly seen in Hamas military uniform with a rifle after school hours.

While the UN told the newspaper that Israel was pursuing a campaign to discredit the UNRWA, the Israeli government said that it was not the case of few rotten apples.

“The U.N. seems intent on portraying this problem as a few bad apples, rather than acknowledging that the tree is rotten,” said Amir Weissbrod, the Deputy Director for International Organizations at Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

Even as the UN downplays the presence of terrorists on its payrolls, such a presence has been acknowledged by terrorists themselves.

In September, Hamas announced that a school principal and a former head of UNRWA’s teachers’ union killed in the war in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif, was a top commander. The same was even acknowledged by the UNRWA.