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Video Transcript:

UNHRC President: “Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, I hereby declare open the Human Rights Council. We will begin the high-level panel discussion of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training.

I give the floor to United Nations Watch.”

Hillel Neuer: “Today’s panel asks how the United Nations can advance human rights education for children and youth.

Surely, the first principle must be: “Do no harm.”

Yesterday, UN Watch released its report card on UNRWA reform, testing the agency’s claims against the evidence.

UNRWA says it fulfilled 41 of the 50 reforms recommended by the Colonna Review.

But what is the reality in UNRWA’s classrooms?

According to a December 8^th, 2025 report in the New York Times, 24 employees at 24 different UNRWA schools, mostly principals and deputy principals, were Hamas or Islamic Jihad terrorists.

We ask: Why for 27 years did UNRWA employ Suhail al-Hindi as school principal and teachers’ union chief while he openly sat on the Hamas Politburo with Yahya Sinwar?

Why was he allowed to block Holocaust education?

Why did UNRWA employee Fateh Sharif serve as a school principal and teachers’ union chief while he was also the Hamas commander in Lebanon?

Why did the UN honor UNRWA principal Imad al-Samhouri at its solemn memorial ceremony when he was a Hamas commander sworn to jihad?

Now, the UN can pretend they didn’t know, but his social media is full of photos of him bringing Hamas chiefs into UNRWA schools.

And so we ask the panel: Is this human rights education?

Will the UN and this Council demand an investigation into the UNRWA leaders who oversaw the hiring of terrorist commanders to run the schools and brainwash generations of Palestinians with incitement, hate, racism and holy war?

We ask: Who will be held accountable?

I thank you.”

The post Hillel Neuer confronts a UN Human Rights Council panel on education over UNRWA’s employment of terrorist leaders as school principals appeared first on UN Watch.

On April 24th, 2024, an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis killed six people. According to the Israeli Ambassador to Belgium, the strike targeted a senior Hamas member. However, because the strike killed Abdullah Jamal Nabhan—whose employer, the Belgian development agency “Enable,” listed him as a Business Development Officer—international media rushed to condemn Israel for the killing of a Belgian aid worker. Belgium’s Foreign Minister demanded an explanation, and outlets like Reuters and Politico published headlines decrying the death.

On September 4, 2026, investigator Gabriel Epstein exposed on X that Abdullah was, in fact, an active fighter in Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade. The thread included a photo of Abdullah from a popular Hamas-affiliated Telegram channel known for eulogizing fallen combatants.

Abdullah Nabhan featured in military gear in an official Hamas martyr post, designated as “The Martyr Mujahid.”

The photo features Abdullah in full military gear. On the bottom, it reads “Abdullah Jamal Nabhan,” and above it, “The Martyr Mujahid.” The thread also included a screenshot where Abdullah’s surviving brother, Abdul, refers to Abdullah and their brother Ahmed (who also died in the strike) as “mujahideen.”

The term “mujahideen” shares its root with “jihad” — both derived from the Arabic for “to strive” or “to struggle” — and specifically designates an active fighter, in contrast to “shahid” (“martyr”), a far broader cultural term often applied to any deceased individual.

Social media confirmation from surviving brother Abdul Nabhan, eulogizing his brothers explicitly as “mujahideen.”

Abdullah’s family members, notably a cousin, quickly contested this exposure, claiming they were appalled by what they termed an “AI obituary” and false news. However, a UN Watch investigation has uncovered a trove of evidence linking the Nabhan family directly to senior Hamas officials, confirming the initial assessment that this was a targeted military strike. The investigation also reveals the family’s documented pattern of camouflaging as aid workers, UNRWA teachers, and journalists to delude Western audiences.

1. The Patriarch: Jamal Nabhan

Jamal Nabhan was the patriarch of the family. Married to Umm Muhammad (the Matriarch), he fathered four sons (Abdullah, Ahmed, Mohammed, and Abdul) and four daughters (Wafaa, Asmaa, Safaa, and Shimma). Jamal was killed in the April 24 strike alongside several of his children and extended family members.

Jamal Nabhan serving as Administrative Director at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa University.

Jamal served as an Administrative Director at Al-Aqsa University, a position subject directly to Hamas appointment. The rift over Gaza’s Al-Aqsa University escalated in 2015 when the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Hamas-run government clashed over the authority to appoint the institution’s president and manage its financial assets. After Hamas unilaterally installed its own acting chairman without PA approval, the PA retaliated by cutting salaries for pro-Hamas academics, freezing university funds, and officially invalidating new student degrees.

Ultimately, Hamas cemented full administrative control over the university by leveraging its de facto governing power in the Gaza Strip to override PA directives, replace senior staff with loyalists, and independently force students to pay tuition fees to sustain operations. Consequently, any appointment made through that local chain of command — such as an administrative director — was installed with Hamas’s explicit vetting and approval.

Prior to retiring in 2019, Jamal maintained deep connections with senior extremist figures. At his son Ahmed’s wedding in 2016, Jamal was photographed alongside Jamil Matou’a, a senior Hamas figure and brother-in-law to Yahya Sinwar. Jamil Matou’a’s son, Mus’ab Matou’a (Abu Jamil al-Ghazawi), joined ISIS and was later killed in combat. In another photo from the wedding, Jamal is pictured alongside Dr. Yahya Musa, a senior Hamas leader frequently seen appearing publicly with Sinwar.

Left: Jamal Nabhan pictured with senior Hamas figure Jamil Matou’a. Right: Jamil Matou’a alongside Yahya Sinwar.

Left: Jamal Nabhan with senior Hamas official Dr. Yahya Musa. Right: Dr. Yahya Musa with Yahya Sinwar.

Jamal’s ideology permeated the entire family home. On a Facebook photo showing his infant grandson wearing a Hamas headband, Jamal commented: “God willing, he will grow up and defend his religion and his country.” His wife added: “may we see him become the best Qassami,” referring directly to Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Facebook comments from Jamal Nabhan and his wife praying for their infant grandson to become a Qassam fighter.

2. The Media Commander: Mohammed Bassem Ahmed al-Jamal

Mohammed Bassem was the son-in-law of the Nabhan family, married to Jamal’s daughter, Shimma. Severely injured in the April 24 strike, he died the following day.

According to local outlet Al-Quds, Mohammed Bassem worked for the Palestine Now News Agency and Al-Aqsa Channel (Hamas’s official, globally sanctioned propaganda network) as a photographer and editing technician. After his death, Western media outlets like The Guardian listed him as a journalist casualty, and Al-Quds claimed Israel targeted “the home of the Palestinian journalist.”

The reality is that Mohammed Bassem was a commander in the Qassam Brigades’ Military Media Department—a fact that even the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) subsequently acknowledged. In an obituary video posted by Hamas, he is armed and dressed in full military uniform while conducting tactical training exercises, touring operational tunnels, firing RPGs, and editing battlefield footage for the terror group.

Left: Mohammed Bassem presented publicly as a press photographer. Center & Right: Hamas obituary footage showing Bassem inside attack tunnels, armed, and conducting military media operations.

3. The “Aid Worker”: Abdullah Jamal Nabhan

This brings us back to Abdullah, the man whose death sparked international media condemnation. Framed as a Belgian “Business Development Officer,” Abdullah was deeply embedded in the family’s militant network.

Following his death in the April 24 strike, his wife, Amal, posted that Abdullah had “attained what [he] wished for,” achieving the “eternal bliss of Paradise”—the traditional phrasing for a fallen combatant. Amal has also actively supported family social media posts featuring children doused in Hamas militant equipment.

Top Left: Abdullah Jamal Nabhan with his wife, Amal. Top Right: Amal memorializing Abdullah’s desired “martyrdom.” Bottom: Social interactions praising military indoctrination within the family.

4. The Surviving and Past Brothers

Militancy was a prerequisite for the Nabhan brothers.

Mohammed Nabhan: Abdullah’s brother Mohammed was killed in 2004 at the age of 17 while engaging the IDF during the Second Intifada. Rather than hide this, his sister Asmaa recently posted a memorial photo of him wearing a Hamas headband and holding an assault rifle. His photo also frequently appears alongside obituary posts of other family members.

Memorial posts from Asmaa and Abdul honoring their brother Mohammed armed with an assault rifle.

Abdul Nabhan: The only living brother, Abdul, is a former UNRWA teacher who later moved to a school run by the Hamas Ministry of Education. While still employed by UNRWA in December 2022, he openly posted: “Happy New Year to Hamas!”

Abdul’s social media is a timeline of terror glorification. In January 2023, he live-celebrated a synagogue shooting in Jerusalem that killed seven people, sharing propaganda from the Al-Qassam Brigades; the Hamas poster’s rhetoric invokes Yahya Ayyash, the Hamas bomb-maker known as “the Engineer” for orchestrating a wave of suicide bombings in Israel during the 1990s. On the morning of the October 7th massacre, he posted: “Death will not harm us… if it occurs after this date: 7/10/2023.” On October 12, 2023 he posted: “God is more powerful than America and Britain, so what are you afraid of?!…He has supported Al-Aqsa, and He has supported our brothers.” Following the April 24 strike that wiped out his father and brothers, Abdul eulogized them all as “mujahedeen” and “martyrs.” He later wrote “My family has won…For whoever among us is killed is a martyr…’And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision.’ [Quran 3:169]…”

Documented records showing Abdul’s transition from UNRWA educator to active online Hamas propagandist, celebrating October 7, Jerusalem synagogue attacks, and eulogizing family members.

5. The Sisters: Enablers and Educators

The women of the Nabhan family play a crucial role in indoctrinating the next generation, blending their roles in the education system with open terror support.

Wafaa: An UNRWA daily teacher in 2024, Wafaa previously won “Outstanding Teacher” at a Hamas Ministry school. She has posted videos of her child draped in Yasser Arafat memorial gear. In a photo where her father appears to pose next to Yahya Sinwar’s brother-in-law, she refers to him as her “role model.”

Wafaa Nabhan receiving teaching awards from the Hamas Ministry of Education and posting political propaganda featuring her child.

Asmaa: Appointed principal of a Hamas Ministry of Education girls’ school. Her husband, Rami Jasser, also known as Prof. Dr. Rami Alghamri, a Cambridge PhD graduate, has posted photos of himself in a Hamas scarf. Alghamri is the chairman of EMAAR, the Gaza Development and Rehabilitation Association. He also served on the board of directors for the “Palestinian Independent Commission to Prosecute the Zionist Occupation’s Crimes Against the Palestinians” from 2011-2013.

Left: School promotion notices for Asmaa. Right: Her husband, Cambridge graduate Rami Jasser, wearing a Hamas scarf.

Safaa: Frequently posts photos of her children in full militant attire. In one image, a masked combatant holds an assault rifle alongside a baby dressed in Hamas gear, whom Safaa affectionately named “Al-Quassami Jimo.”

Safaa Nabhan uploading photos of infants dressed in Hamas military uniforms paired with automatic weapons.

Shimma: The widow of media commander Mohammed Bassem. Following the strike that killed her husband, father, and brothers, she wrote: “our solace is that you’ve attained martyrdom.” Shimaa also responded to a photo of her infant in Hamas gear, writing: “she’s happy with our little one who just arrived… may god protect him…”

Top: Shimaa eulogizing her husband and father. Bottom: Social media post dressing her newborn in Hamas headbands.

The post The Nabhan Network: How a Hamas Terrorist Family Camouflaged as Aid Workers, Teachers, and Journalists appeared first on UN Watch.

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Speaking at the 63rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council during a panel on human rights education, Neta Heiman Mina, daughter of 84-year-old former hostage Ditza Heiman, delivered a joint statement on behalf of UN Watch directly confronting the United Nations over its continued funding and defense of UNRWA. After her mother was held hostage for 48 days in the attic of an UNRWA teacher following the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz, Mina’s testimony exposed the stark contradiction between the UN’s stated commitment to human rights education and the documented complicity of the UN’s own education personnel in terrorism and hostage-taking. Her intervention highlights the urgent necessity for international bodies and global donors to hold UNRWA accountable, urging the UN to seek uncompromised alternatives that guarantee education, healthcare, and food security for Gaza’s children without entrusting their future to individuals tied to extremist violence.

Transcript: 

My name is Neta Heiman Mina. On October 7th, my mother, Ditza, was 84 years old when she was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas terrorists.

For 48 days, an UNRWA teacher, Abed, kept her trapped in his attic in terrible conditions with very little food. I ask the United Nations: how could you place the education of Gaza’s next generation with someone involved in holding an elderly woman hostage?

My mother wasn’t the only one. We know of other UNRWA employees connected to the massacre and kidnappings of October 7th. Why did UNRWA allow Suhail al-Hindi to be in charge of 8,000 teachers in Gaza while he was a member of Hamas? If the UN truly cares about human rights and education, how can it allow an agency compromised by terrorism to shape the future of Palestinian children?

I believe the vacuum must be filled. The UN and the Board of Peace must find alternatives to provide Gaza’s children with healthcare, education, and food security. As an activist with Women Wage Peace, I believe Israel should support this effort. It is the moral and the Jewish thing to do. When the people of Gaza have a better life, our future will be better too.

The post My Mother Was Held Hostage by an UNRWA Teacher: Neta Heiman Mina Addresses UN Human Rights Council appeared first on UN Watch.

UN Watch investigation finds the agency substituted paperwork and promises for meaningful change

GENEVA, 14 September 2026 — UNRWA’s claim to have completed 41 of the 50 reforms recommended by the landmark Colonna Review substantially overstates the changes achieved on the ground, according to a major new report released today by UN Watch.

The “Report Card on UNRWA Reform” examines UNRWA’s implementation of every recommendation issued by the Independent Review Group led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.

Commissioned by UN Secretary-General António Guterres following revelations that UNRWA employees participated in the October 7 massacre and amid the suspension of $450 million in donor funding, the Colonna Review was intended to determine whether the agency’s neutrality safeguards were “fit for purpose” and to restore donor confidence.

Two years later, UNRWA says that 41 recommendations are completed. Yet UN Watch’s analysis finds that UNRWA frequently measured administrative activity instead of meaningful reform. At most, the new report concludes, 13 of Colonna’s 50 recommendations have actually been completed as prescribed.

“UNRWA has graded its own homework and awarded itself high marks,” said UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer. “But issuing a policy is not the same as enforcing it. Drafting a plan is not the same as implementing it, and closing a recommendation does not mean that the underlying problem has been solved.”

“On paper, UNRWA reports sweeping progress. On the ground, its employees continue to be exposed as members and supporters of terrorist organizations, hateful educational content persists, and Hamas-dominated unions continue to obstruct neutrality and discipline.”

Key Findings

• UNRWA redefined what counts as completion. Under its “Minimum Viable Product” methodology, UNRWA allows itself to classify a recommendation as completed once it considers the recommendation’s “core functional objective” achieved—even where further measures remain necessary and the reform has not been fully institutionalized.
• UNRWA still lacks a demonstrated system for screening its workforce for Hamas membership. Its principal sanctions screening relies on the UN Security Council Consolidated Sanctions List, which does not list Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
• External investigations continue to uncover what UNRWA’s internal systems missed. In June 2026, the USAID Office of Inspector General referred 108 current or former UNRWA personnel for suspension or debarment based on evidence linking them to the October 7 attacks or Hamas’s military wing. Days later, UNRWA dismissed 70 Gaza employees following a security assessment, while insisting that the dismissals did not validate the allegations against them. See also UN Watch’s statement on the dismissals.
• UNRWA closed union reforms that were never implemented. The agency classified revisions to its Staff Union Statute as completed after merely drafting and transmitting a proposed statute, even though the unions had not adopted it. Yet within months of this supposed reform achievement, the UNRWA Gaza Staff Union—still under unchanged leadership—mobilized against the dismissal of the 70 terror-linked employees and demanded their reinstatement. UN Watch’s report Schools in the Grip of Terror documents how Hamas-linked officials continue to dominate UNRWA staff unions.
• One recommendation was closed as “unimplementable.” Recommendation 46 called for outsourcing union pay-setting functions. UNRWA determined that the measure could not be implemented, yet still counted the recommendation as closed.
• Vetting reforms remain dependent on funding. UNRWA closed recommendations concerning commercial screening and the vetting of union officials after developing pilots and costed plans, although the actual systems had not been fully deployed.
• Educational reform is measured by procedures rather than content. UNRWA cites reviews, digital platforms, teacher training and engagement with UNESCO as evidence of progress, while post-Colonna assessments by IMPACT-se continue to identify antisemitism, glorification of terrorism and incitement in the 2025–2026 Palestinian Authority curriculum used in UNRWA schools.
• Training cannot prevent deliberate military misuse of UNRWA facilities. The Colonna Review acknowledged that UNRWA lacks the policing, military and investigative capabilities required to detect weapons, tunnels and military activity at its installations. New policies and awareness programs do not remedy this fundamental incapacity. The standard inspection regime still does not operate normally in Gaza, where the most serious allegations have arisen.
• UNRWA declared a “cultural shift” completed while describing it as ongoing. The agency classified all recommendations on enhanced cooperation as complete even as its own reporting acknowledged that the required institutional transformation remained underway.

Structural Failure, Not a Paperwork Problem

The report finds that many of the Colonna recommendations proposed potentially useful administrative improvements. However, they did not adequately address the deeper institutional causes of UNRWA’s neutrality crisis: terrorist infiltration among personnel, Hamas influence over staff unions and schools, the agency’s inability to investigate clandestine affiliations, and an institutional culture deeply embedded in the Palestinian political struggle against Israel.

“The central question is not how many policies UNRWA has written, training sessions it has conducted or recommendations it has marked complete,” Neuer said. “The question is whether UNRWA can prevent its schools, staff and facilities from serving terrorism and incitement. The evidence examined in this report shows that it cannot.”

“The Colonna process was designed to reassure donors. Our report tests that reassurance against the evidence—and finds a profound gap between reform claimed and reform achieved.”

UN Watch called on donor governments not to rely on UNRWA’s self-reported completion figures when deciding whether to resume or continue funding. Governments should require independent verification of each claimed reform and assess whether it has produced measurable changes in staff conduct, educational content, union activity and the protection of UN facilities.

“Donor states were promised reform,” Neuer said. “Instead of delivering proof of results, UNRWA offers policies on paper, pilot projects awaiting funding, or recommendations closed by administrative decree.”

The report concludes that UNRWA’s failures cannot be repaired through managerial adjustments. Its mandate, workforce and role in Palestinian society are inseparable from a political project that perpetuates refugee status, the claimed “right of return” and rejection of Israel. UNRWA employs more than 28,000 people, overwhelmingly locally recruited Palestinians, while only about 120 staff are international.

“The Colonna reforms cannot make politically neutral an institution whose fundamental structure and purpose sustain the grievances and ideology exploited by Hamas,” said Neuer. “Humanitarian assistance for needy Gazans must continue, but it should be delivered through institutions capable of operating independently of terrorism and the political perpetuation of the conflict.”

The Report

The full report, Report Card on UNRWA Reform: An Evaluation of the Agency’s Claims Against the Evidence on Implementation of the Colonna Report, is available here.  Related UN Watch resources include the UNRWA Terror Network and Schools in the Grip of Terror.

About UN Watch

UN Watch is a Geneva-based independent human rights organization accredited in special consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Founded in 1993, UN Watch monitors the performance of the United Nations according to the principles of its Charter and advocates for victims of human rights abuses worldwide.

The post New Report: UNRWA Claims Reform While Terrorism and Incitement Persist appeared first on UN Watch.

At a UN memorial ceremony on June 8, 2026, both officials helped light an eternal flame honoring fallen UN personnel, with El Samhouri’s name read aloud before them.

According to a Hamas martyr video, El Samhouri served as a field commander in the Muhammad al-Shamali Battalion of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades. The footage shows him emerging from terrorist tunnels and declaring that jihad was his chosen path:

El Samhour’s publicly available social-media record also documented close ties to Hamas officials, glorification of terrorism, and the use of UNRWA schools to host Hamas figures and steer students toward Hamas-linked organizations.

In the open letter below, Neuer demands an independent investigation into how a Hamas commander was permitted to run UNRWA schools for more than a decade—and who within the agency knew or should have known. He also calls on Guterres and Baerbock to apologize to Hamas’s victims, disclose all UNRWA employees found to have terrorist ties, and hold accountable the supervisors and senior officials responsible.

Meet Imad Yousif El Samhouri, veteran UNRWA teacher and school principal.

L: Samhouri honored by UN chief Antonio Guterres
R: Samhouri in Hamas terrorist martyr video

Samhouri’s terror ties were known. 🧵⬇️

Why are 🇫🇷🇩🇪🇬🇧🇳🇴🇳🇱🇨🇭🇮🇹🇨🇦 funding terrorists to teach Palestinian kids? pic.twitter.com/7e4WmR3rfQ

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 13, 2026

Open Letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNGA President Annalena Baerbock from Hillel Neuer

Dear Secretary-General Antonio Guterres,
Dear UNGA President Annalena Baerbock,

Will you apologize for lighting a flame at a recent UN ceremony to honor a Hamas terrorist commander before the world?

Will you finally acknowledge that UNRWA is simply unwilling or unable to root out the terrorists who have taken over its schools?

On June 8, 2026, on the one-year anniversary of UNRWA teacher Imad El Samhouri’s death, you lit an eternal flame to “pay tribute” to his memory and that of other UN “family members.”

(His name was read out in front of both of you, at 27:45 in this video, as seen here.)

But El Samhouri was not only a teacher and principal in multiple UNRWA schools. He was a military commander in the Hamas terrorist organization, seen with grenades, machine guns, and coming in and out of terror tunnels.

When wearing his UNRWA educator uniform, your colleague brought Hamas officials into UNRWA schools to address students and preside at ceremonies. He used your schools to scout and recruit “talent” for Hamas-linked clubs.

A quick glance at your colleague’s social media—photos of him with Hamas officials, posts glorifying the kidnapping and murder of Jews—shows that he was hiding in plain sight. UNRWA officials and colleagues knew.

According to a recently-published martyr video, Hamas confirmed that the UN colleague whom you honored—as “fallen in the line of duty”—held the rank of Hamas Field Commander in the Muhammad al-Shamali Battalion of the Al-Qassam Rafah Brigade.

The UNRWA teacher and school principal whom you honored is seen in the video declaring that “Death in the cause of Allah is our highest aspiration.”

Excellencies, is this not the complete antithesis of the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines the right to life?

The person who served as a UN teacher and principal at multiple Gaza schools for over a decade said, “We have chosen Jihad as our path.”

Excellencies, is this not a betrayal of the United Nations Charter, whose preamble calls on us to “practice tolerance and live together in peace”?

The UNRWA teacher for whom you lit the eternal flame says, “Praise be to Allah [for] the tunnels… the Zionist enemy never imagines we will emerge from beneath the ground, the rubble.”

Excellencies, how many UNRWA teachers must emerge from Hamas tunnels before you admit that the terrorists are not merely beneath UNRWA’s schools, but actually inside them?

Excellencies, if an UNRWA children’s school principal emerging from Hamas tunnels does not compel you to confront the agency’s terrorist infiltration, what possibly will?

Secretary-General Guterres, I must remind you: not only did you honor this UNRWA teacher with the eternal flame, but you said that it was “the privilege of my life” to work alongside people like him; that you “commit to carrying forward their work”; that people like El Samhouri “made our world a better place.”

Now that the man you praised has been exposed as a Hamas field commander, do you stand by those words? Is Imad El Samhouri’s work—the jihad, the terror tunnels, the indoctrination of children—the work you intend to carry forward?

Will you retract your tribute, apologize to the victims of Hamas, and order an independent investigation into how a terrorist commander was allowed to run UNRWA schools for more than a decade?

Mr. Secretary-General, will you hold to account—including by supporting criminal prosecutions on charges of material support for terrorism—all of the complicit UNRWA colleagues, supervisors, and high officials including Philippe Lazzarini?

President Baerbock, this is also a question for you. During the years you served as Germany’s foreign minister, your government provided UNRWA with €570 million ($620 million). Germany was one of the agency’s largest donors.

Madam President, after committing nearly €570 million of German taxpayer money to UNRWA, how did you fail to discover that one of its longtime school principals—working as part of a network of more than 400 other UNRWA staff—was openly involved with Hamas?

In our UN Watch reports, we warned your government multiple times.

Why did you resume funding UNRWA before demanding genuine accountability for its terrorist infiltration?

Will you now acknowledge that Germany’s assurances about UNRWA oversight were catastrophically wrong?

Will you apologize for joining in the tribute to the Hamas commander your government helped employ?

Excellencies, please be aware that we will be writing to the foreign ministers of all UNRWA donors—including the European Union (which gave UNRWA $134 million last year) Germany ($119M), Spain ($38M), Norway ($38M), France ($31M), Ireland ($21M), Denmark ($21M), Swiss ($17M), Netherlands ($16M), Luxembourg ($16M), Belgium ($13M)—to urge their government to stop funding Hamas terrorists as UNRWA teachers and school principals who teach hate and jihad to Palestinian children.

We urge you to retract the tribute to Imad El Samhouri, apologize to the victims of Hamas, commission a genuinely independent investigation, and disclose the identities of every UNRWA employee found to have terrorist ties, as well as every supervisor and senior official who knew or should have known.

There can be no immunity, impunity, or eternal flame for terrorists who infiltrate the United Nations.

Sincerely,
Hillel C. Neuer
United Nations Watch
Geneva, Switzerland

Dear Secretary-General @antonioguterres,
Dear President Annalena Baerbock @UN_PGA,

Will you apologize for lighting a flame at a recent UN ceremony to honor a Hamas terrorist commander before the world?

Will you finally acknowledge that UNRWA is simply unwilling or unable to… https://t.co/A23p3LTxjN pic.twitter.com/lGEf3ShdBD

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 14, 2026

Transcript of El Samhouri’s Hamas martyr video:

[Song] O free men marching toward Jerusalem, Who is like you, O people of sacrifice? O procession of the pure, O martyrs from among our noble people. With love and greetings Heroes of the Flood.

Samhouri: “This is the roadmap to liberation and glorious victory we trace it with our blood and chart it with steadfast resistance.

A morning’s or evening’s journey in the cause of Allah is better than this world and all it contains. The call to arms has resounded in the hearts of the faithful and they have answered the call. Allah is the Greatest. Here I am for you, O Holy City. Here I am, O site of the Messenger of Allah’s Night Journey.

Here I am for you, O beloved Palestine. The suns of my beloved have set; they dismounted and departed. We press on in our jihad, our hearts yearning for Al-Quds Al-Sharif, our eyes fixed on our heroic prisoners, and the plight of the refugees alive in our hearts.

We have chosen jihad as our path; our anthem is that Death in the cause of Allah is our highest aspiration, and our resolve will not waver, no matter how long the road or how great the sacrifices. Our grief is deep—so be patient.

They were here; we were together, but they have departed from this place. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds who has honored us with the tunnels and made them a means of resistance a means by which the Zionist enemy never imagines we will emerge from beneath the ground, from beneath the rubble, from between the demolished homes.

With my heart, my soul, and my conscience, my brothers, I weep for you. I see you, layer upon layer, O our refuge.

Companions on Allah’s path in this life you are our pride this life is our pride. My family and my brothers, by Allah, I love you with a love known only to Allah; but this is the call the call to jihad, which the prophets the righteous, and the martyrs answered and they charted the path for us with their blood.

In conclusion, I bear witness I bear witness before Allah the Exalted and Glorious that I have forgiven everyone who has wronged me even with a single word. My brothers, this will was written on Tuesday, December 11, 2007.

This was not my first will— it may be my second or third in 2007 at 4:25 p.m. And as you depart, my heart, once desolate is now satisfied. Your brother, a living martyr, Allah willing: Abu Yusuf, Imad Yusuf al-Samhouri.

The suns of my beloved have set; they dismounted and departed. And my heart, once desolate, has now found solace.”

6/ Evidence from Samhouri's network confirms that UNRWA became a subsidiary of Hamas.

Muhammad Al-Bardawil headed UNRWA's Rafah Prep School B for Boys. His deputy Samhouri was a Hamas Commander.

They repeatedly brought Hamas terrorists into the school: https://t.co/4l5HVZzVq0 pic.twitter.com/lJkTDuIEaZ

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 13, 2026

The post UN Leaders Lit an Eternal Flame for a Hamas Commander appeared first on UN Watch.

UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer appeared on ILTV with Calev Ben-David to discuss Israel’s Supreme Court challenge to the UNRWA ban, the agency’s ties to Hamas, and the future of Gaza.

Calev Ben-David, ILTV: In other news, Israel’s Supreme Court is this week hearing a potentially landmark legal challenge to the recent Israeli law banning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which deals with Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere, from operating in Israel. The law also bans Israeli officials from working with UNRWA.

A High Court petition filed by the civil rights group Adalah argues that the law undermines humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and East Jerusalem, while also raising constitutional concerns. The Israeli government says the law is a critical security measure, accusing a number of UNRWA employees of taking part in the October 7 attacks and of maintaining ties to Hamas.

UNRWA has dismissed several employees but says Israel has not provided evidence to support all of its allegations.

Joining us for more on this issue is Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch. I think it’s fair to say, Hillel, that you, more than anybody else, have really led the way in exposing UNRWA’s links to Hamas.

First of all, I’d like to get your reaction to this challenge to the Israeli law. I should note that, in the past, Israel’s Supreme Court has generally allowed the government to make decisions on issues specifically related to security. What’s your view?

Hillel Neuer: Look, the foreign minister of Switzerland, Ignazio Cassis, said several years ago that UNRWA is perpetuating the conflict. He said it has become “a perverse logic.” We, he said, who are funding and supporting UNRWA, are only perpetuating the conflict.

That’s the truth. That’s the reality.

It’s not just a question of reform. The very idea of UNRWA today—even though its origins were benign—is to teach millions of Palestinians, whether they’re in Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, or Jordan, that their mission in life is to dismantle Israel.

Keep in mind, Jordan has two million citizens who have Jordanian citizenship, but according to the UN, they are UNRWA refugees, which means their mission in life is to “return,” as they call it—which, in their minds, means returning, like October 7, through violence and massacre, to dismantle Israel.

That is the essence of UNRWA. The Israeli law, I would say, finally—perhaps decades too late—recognized that.

Calev Ben-David, ILTV: I want to expand beyond that because this law applies to territory under Israeli control. But, as we reported earlier in the broadcast, there is now a process in Gaza that would see the IDF pull back and establish a new governance structure in the Gaza Strip.

The question is: what is being done, potentially, either to reform UNRWA—which, as you say, is probably impossible—or replace it with another kind of administration, which the Trump administration had previously tried to do, with very mixed results?

Hillel Neuer: Look, the Board of Peace has said expressly that UNRWA will not be part of the future of Gaza. They have said it very clearly. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has said it as well. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that UNRWA has become a subsidiary of Hamas.

That is corroborated by our research in Gaza and Lebanon.

Keep in mind, the head of the UNRWA Teachers’ Union in Gaza, representing 8,000 UNRWA teachers funded by Western states, was Suhail al-Hindi. He’s a member of the Hamas politburo. He’s now one of the Hamas leaders who meets with the Iranian regime in Qatar on behalf of Hamas. He was a teacher, a school principal, and the head of 8,000 teachers.

The same happened in Lebanon. The head of the UNRWA Teachers’ Union there, a teacher and school principal for 30 years, Fathi Sharif, was the commander of Hamas in Lebanon until justice was delivered to him some two years ago.

UNRWA knows about this. Philippe Lazzarini, who was the head of UNRWA for the past five years and has now retired, should be held accountable. There is no way he could have been unaware that the heads of UNRWA teachers’ unions were Hamas leaders.

They pretend they didn’t know, but the fact is we released a 100-page report showing that Fathi al-Sharif, every day on his Facebook page, was posting photos of himself with Hamas and other terrorist leaders.

They knew. They were complicit. They need to be held to account.

Calev Ben-David, ILTV: You mentioned the Board of Peace, but that board does include—or is planning to include—representatives from Turkey and Qatar, countries that have certainly defended UNRWA, to say the very least. That appears to have had some influence, at least in the Trump administration’s planning for Gaza.

How hopeful are you, under those circumstances, that some kind of alternative structure will be established in Gaza to replace UNRWA’s functions?

Hillel Neuer: You’re right to point the finger at Qatar and Turkey. They have been legitimizers, funders, and enablers of Hamas. Hamas leaders were based in Qatar, and many are now in Turkey. The Turkish foreign minister was openly tweeting just a few days ago about hosting a Hamas leader.

If these countries have any influence over the process, it will be a failure. Hopefully they won’t.

The fact is, the people speaking for the Board of Peace are condemning UNRWA so clearly that whoever is in charge of the Board of Peace today is not Qatar or Turkey—it’s someone else.

I agree that Qatar and Turkey should not have any influence on the ground in Gaza. Otherwise, we’re going to repeat what we saw before: enabling Hamas and sending Palestinians into a very dark future.

If we get rid of UNRWA and tell Palestinians that the future is not about resentment and war but about building a future, they could have a great future.

But no future administration in Gaza can succeed unless people sign on the dotted line that they are not refugees. Otherwise, any money sent there will once again go into terror tunnels.

They have to accept that wherever they are living is where they are going to build their future. It’s not about creating terror tunnels to destroy Israel.

Calev Ben-David, ILTV: Briefly, is there something Israel should be doing more of? As you mentioned, they came to this somewhat belatedly. You more or less led the way on this issue. Is there more the Israeli government should be doing?

Hillel Neuer: Actually, I’d like to give credit to Dr. Einat Wilf, who wrote the primary book on this with Dr. Adi Schwartz, The War of Return.

They explained that, for a decade, they had been calling out UNRWA. Einat Wilf, a former Knesset member who is now running with her own party, has said that when she approached IDF leaders, they would tell her, “It buys us quiet.”

But that was a false quiet. It was an illusion of temporary quiet. At the end of the day, the fact that there are Hamas murderers who want to murder Jews is a symptom. The real problem is the education they receive.

UNRWA, whether in Lebanon, Jordan, or elsewhere, educates Palestinians that their mission is to dismantle Israel.

Israelis did not want to recognize that reality. They were living under an illusion. That included the defense establishment.

That illusion blew up in their faces on October 7.

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The letter argues that immunity exists solely to protect the interests of the United Nations—not individual officials—and must be waived where it would impede the course of justice without prejudicing the Organization’s interests.

“For years, we repeatedly warned Mr. Lazzarini that Hamas had deeply infiltrated UNRWA,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch. “We provided detailed evidence identifying Hamas-affiliated teachers, school principals, union leaders, and other employees. We documented repeated meetings between senior UNRWA officials—including Mr. Lazzarini himself—and leaders of Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Yet he continued to assure governments that UNRWA’s neutrality mechanisms were effective while overseeing an agency whose personnel, facilities, and resources were being exploited by terrorist groups.”

UN Watch contends that despite repeated warnings, Lazzarini continued to oversee the payment of salaries to thousands of UNRWA employees in Gaza, many of whom have since been shown to have deep ties to Hamas and other terrorist organizations, while continuing to administer facilities that provided terrorist groups with access to students, infrastructure, and institutional legitimacy. The letter states that these facts establish reasonable grounds to investigate whether Lazzarini knowingly facilitated or provided material support and assistance to individuals and entities involved in terrorism, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

UN Watch called on Secretary-General Guterres to publicly waive any applicable immunity without delay and to ensure the full cooperation of the United Nations with any resulting criminal investigation.

“The credibility of the United Nations depends on demonstrating that immunity is not a shield for impunity,” Neuer said.

Also today, UNRWA held a pledging conference at the United Nations in New York, with several countries announcing voluntary contributions for the Agency’s 2026 operations amid ongoing concerns over its management and neutrality. UN Watch warns that without accountability for past leadership failures, further funding risks perpetuating the very problems that have undermined UNRWA’s credibility.

View the Letter to Secretary-General Guterres Here

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
The United Nations
New York, NY 10027
United States

30 June 2026

Re: Demand to Waive Immunity of Philippe Lazzarini for Crimes Against Humanity

Dear Secretary-General Guterres,

I write to demand that you exercise your authority under Article V, Section 20 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations and immediately waive any immunity enjoyed by outgoing UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini for his alleged complicity in acts of terrorism, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, insofar as necessary to permit his investigation and prosecution by competent national authorities.

Immunity is granted solely in the interests of the United Nations, and not for personal benefit of the UN official, in this case, Mr. Lazzarini. Where immunity would impede the course of justice and can be waived without prejudice to the interests of the Organization, the Convention requires that it be waived. This is your duty.

For years, UN Watch repeatedly provided Mr. Lazzarini and his administration with detailed evidence of Hamas infiltration of UNRWA, including evidence concerning teachers, school principals, union leaders, and other employees who openly supported, assisted, or were affiliated with Hamas and other terrorist organizations. We documented repeated interactions between senior UNRWA officials—including Mr. Lazzarini himself—and leaders of Hamas and other terrorist groups. We warned that UNRWA facilities, resources, personnel, and institutional structures were being exploited for the benefit of terrorist organizations. Our online database mapping out the UNRWA terror network is here.

Despite these repeated warnings, Mr. Lazzarini continued to oversee the payment of salaries to thousands of UNRWA employees in Gaza, many of whom have since been shown to have deep ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups. He continued to administer facilities that provided terrorist organizations with access to students, employees, infrastructure, and institutional legitimacy. He continued to assure donor governments and the public that UNRWA’s neutrality mechanisms were functioning effectively, even as evidence of terrorist infiltration continued to mount.

These facts raise grave questions as to whether Mr. Lazzarini knowingly facilitated, enabled, or provided material support and assistance to individuals and entities involved in terrorism, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. At a minimum, they establish reasonable grounds to investigate whether he bears responsibility for complicity in such crimes.

No credible commitment to accountability can permit the head of a United Nations agency to invoke immunity while serious allegations of this magnitude remain beyond the reach of criminal investigators. The interests of justice require that competent authorities be allowed to determine the facts.

We therefore call upon you to waive any applicable immunity for Mr. Lazzarini without delay, publicly announce that decision, and ensure the full cooperation of the United Nations with any resulting criminal investigation.

The credibility of the United Nations depends on demonstrating that immunity is not a shield of impunity for pepetrators of terrorism, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Sincerely,

Hillel C. Neuer
Executive Director

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Jan Eliasson, ex-Swedish foreign minister and UN deputy secretary-general, fired off the demand after a user likened UNRWA — the UN’s scandal-plagued Palestinian refugee agency — to the Nazi party’s structure.

Eliasson first defended UNRWA as the “backbone” for schools, health care and infrastructure in Palestinian communities. Then he declared that comparing any UN agency to the Nazis during World War II “should lead to mass blocking on X.”

UN Watch chief Hillel Neuer blasted the call and questioned Eliasson’s support for the agency.

“Why did you support UNRWA while they put Suheil al-Hindi in charge of their 8,000 teachers in Gaza, teaching three hundred thousand children to glorify murdering Jews?” Neuer replied.

Al-Hindi, a longtime UNRWA teacher, school principal and Gaza staff union boss, is a longtime member of the Hamas Politburo in Gaza. He was photographed alongside Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar.

The agency has faced withering criticism for employing Hamas terrorists and hiring antisemitic teachers and school principals who promote jihad and martyrdom. Many of the Oct. 7 Hamas attackers were reportedly educated in its schools. Johann Soufi, UNRWA’s former legal advisor, said that 90% of Gazans attended UNRWA schools.

“Nazis educated their children to hate and kill Jews. UNRWA educates Palestinian children to hate and kill Jews,” one user noted. “Nazis committed pogroms. People educated at UNRWA’s schools committed the Oct. 7 pogroms.”

Eliasson’s push to silence debate has so far backfired, fueling fresh outrage over the UN’s role in perpetuating hatred and terror under the guise of humanitarian aid.

This is not the first time that Eliasson and Neuer have clashed. As UN General Assembly president in 2006, Eliasson debated Neuer on the BBC about the newly reformed UN Human Rights Council, with the Swedish diplomat then insisting that the body would be credible and suspend serial abusers from its membership. In the two decades since then, the Council went on to elect China, Cuba, Venezuela, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Somalia, Qatar, Bangladesh, and Burundi — none of which has ever been suspended.

BREAKING: Former Swedish foreign minister and deputy U.N. chief Jan Eliasson calls for “mass blocking on X” of anyone who compares UNRWA to the Nazis. https://t.co/Z9SsqjQpF6

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) June 30, 2026

The post Ex-UN Boss Demands Mass Blocks on X for Comparing UNRWA to Nazis appeared first on UN Watch.

Key Findings on Fired UNRWA Employees:

• 1. Mohammed M. Issa: Publicly lionized senior Hamas military commanders, called on the “resistance” to abduct more Israeli citizens to initiate prisoner exchanges, and distributed highly disturbing propaganda imagery of infants holding automatic weapons.
• 2. Mohammad Juma Shuwaideh: Publicly exposed by state intelligence as a Hamas squad commander, openly rejected institutional neutrality mandates, and maintained administrative oversight of a facility beneath which an operational terrorist attack tunnel network operated.
• 3. Mohamed Ghorab: Explicitly celebrated the October 7th massacres as “blessed,” publicly praised a family-linked militant who served 22 years for a violent stabbing attack, and openly used his digital footprint to publish explicit calls to jihad.

Last week, Acting Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Christian Saunders, announced the immediate termination of 70 staff members in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA’s official statement expressly stated that the terminations were “not part of a disciplinary process” and that they are not intended as “a validation of the claims made against” the employees. Instead, the statement carefully framed the decision as a precautionary measure taken under its legal framework to mitigate “safety and security risks” for both its personnel and the refugees it serves.

The statement’s inherent contradiction was exposed when the UN spokesman was unable to explain why UNRWA would terminate 70 employees if the decision was neither punitive nor evidence-based. Instead, he said only that “the situation in UNRWA is rather complex and challenging,” and that the Commissioner-General sometimes must take “decisions that are not easy to take, but that are in the best interest of the Organization.”

It’s clear that UNRWA is engaging in damage control: removing terrorists from its staff lists while continuing to deny to donor states that it employed them in the first place.

Despite UNRWA’s measured language, Palestinian militant factions, local staff unions, and political committees immediately erupted in protest:

• The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), which participated in the October 7th massacre, vowed that the firings “must not go unpunished.”
• The militant group “Ahrar Movement” condemned the action as “a clear capitulation to the pressures and political blackmail exerted by the Israeli occupation on international institutions operating in Palestine.”
• The Joint Committee for Palestinian Refugees, led by Mahmoud Khalaf—a close ally of Hamas Politburo member and former President of the UNRWA staff unions, Suhail al-Hindi—stated his “complete rejection of the decision to dismiss staff based on legally unsubstantiated accusations.”
• Suhail al-Hindi himself stated, “UNRWA’s decision to dismiss dozens of employees from Gaza is a stab in the back of Gaza and its resilience.”
• Mustafa al-Ghoul, the Hamas-affiliated current president of the UNRWA staff union in Gaza, complained that the “number of Arab employees in UNRWA in Gaza has decreased from about 13,000 to about 9,600 employees as a result of dismissals, martyrdom and resignations.”
• Rania Madi, senior advisor at Law for Palestine, stated that these are “serious and fabricated accusations directed at UNRWA to label it as supporting terrorism, simply because some of its employees express their support for the rights of their people, or because one of their family members has a connection to the Palestinian resistance…”
• The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement called it “submission to Zionist pressure” and “political blackmail.”

Collectively, these groups echo a core argument: UNRWA is unjustly punishing workers simply for expressing solidarity with the Palestinian cause or because of their family ties, in violation of the basic principle of “innocent until proven guilty.”

Yet the conduct that some of these employees themselves defend exposes a profound disconnect between local notions of “patriotism” and the neutrality required of UN personnel. Below, we profile the only three recently dismissed employees who have publicly acknowledged their firing and continue to claim innocence, despite openly championing conduct that is wholly incompatible with the principles the UN claims to uphold.

1. Mohammed M. Issa

On June 12, 2026, Mohammed M. Issa lamented on Facebook about being one of the 70 employees fired from UNRWA (archive link). Issa’s public defense was absolute:

“I categorically affirm that I do not belong to Hamas, have never belonged to it, and oppose it ideologically and politically. I also do not belong to any other organization. I will use all available legal means to challenge this decision.”

Issa’s recent digital footprint does show genuine frustration with Hamas, mostly driven by the well-documented anger of Palestinians with the Hamas leadership, who escaped to the Four Seasons in Doha, Qatar while leaving their population to suffer the consequences of its actions. In November 2024, Issa vented his frustration via a joke on Facebook about what the leader of Hamas, Khalil al-Hayya, was having for dinner:

Yet the question of whether Issa is formally affiliated with Hamas is ultimately beside the point. His claim to neutrality completely disintegrates upon review of his extensive social media history.

Exhibit 1: Public Support for Hamas Commanders

• Shared a post (archive link) celebrating Raed Al-Attar (Abu Ayman) and Muhammad Abu Shamala (Abu Khalil). Raed Al-Attar served as the commander of the Rafah company for the Al-Qassam Brigades. Muhammad Abu Shamala was a leader of the Brigades, serving as the sub-commander of the southern Gaza Strip.
• Published a post (archive link) celebrating Emad Akel, the deceased commander of the Brigades.

Exhibit 2: Celebration of Terrorists and Suicide Bombers

• Published a post (archive link) supporting Umm Nidal Farhat, known as the “Mother of Martyrs” for her vocal backing of her sons’ suicide bombings. She later became a member of Hamas.
• Shared a post (archive link) eulogizing Hamas terrorist Mohammed Assi, who helped organize a bus bombing in Tel Aviv that wounded 29 civilians.
• Shared a post (archive link) celebrating Samer Issawi, who was sentenced to 26 years in prison in 2002 for executing shooting attacks targeting Israeli police cars and university students at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
• Shared a post (archive link) celebrating Abdul Basit Odeh, the Qassam Brigades operative who carried out the horrific Park Hotel suicide bombing in Netanya, killing 30 people during a Passover seder.

Exhibit 3: Calls for the Abduction of Israelis

• Published a post (archive link) explicitly demanding that the “resistance” capture more Israeli soldiers to force future prisoner leverage exchanges.
• Published a post (archive link) calling for “a new Gilad,” referencing Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was captured and held hostage in Gaza for five years.

Exhibit 4: Incitement and Militant Alignment

Mohammed Issa shared an explicit image of an active combatant paired with the phrase “glory to the resistance.” (archive link)

Mohammed has also “dreamt that a missile launched at Tel Aviv accidentally hit a Zionist F-16 fighter jet in the skies over the Gaza Strip.” He adds, “It’s difficult, almost impossible, but worth the wait and the dream…” (Archive Link)

Exhibit 5: Armed Radicalization of Infants

Issa repeatedly shared deeply unsettling, militant propaganda photos portraying infants holding real automatic weapons. (archive link 1) (archive link 2)

2. Mohammad Juma Shuwaideh (Abu Firas)

On June 11, 2026, a screenshot of a text message sent by Mohammad Juma Shuwaideh confirming his administrative removal was posted (archive link) on Facebook. The text states:

“Praise be to God, before and after. A short while ago, I received the dismissal letter from the Agency [UNRWA]… on the charge of working in an armed organization.”

An organizational comment left on the post directly illuminates the structural footprint Shuwaideh maintained inside UNRWA operations:

”Of course, Abu Fares is the one who has been managing all the agency’s work since the beginning of the war in Gaza, and everyone testifies to him.”

Mohammad Juma Shuwaideh has been tracked by UN Watch for at least two years. In September 2025, he featured heavily within UN Watch’s published investigative report, “Schools in the Grip of Terror,” and was formally included in the comprehensive tracking network, “UNRWA Terror Network.”

Mohammad Juma Shuwaideh (aka “Abu Fares”) operated administratively as an UNRWA school principal at the UNRWA Zeitoun Prep A Boys School. He has held active membership within the UNRWA Gaza Staff Union executive circles since at least 2015. In that capacity, he has publicly defended internal union strikes that crippled vital community services against complaints by UNRWA aid recipients. In May 2020, current union president Mustafa Al-Ghoul published an image of the two together, introducing Shuwaideh as the acting Union Secretary while warmly calling him “brother.”

Shuwaideh has also publicly opposed UNRWA’s attempts to scrub violent or biased entries from classroom material. He strongly rejected the sanitization of specific religious texts referencing “jihad” and fought to retain instructional maps depicting sovereign Israeli cities (such as Haifa) entirely as Palestinian domain. He further demanded that UNRWA implement local educational tracking curricula “without any interference,” asserting that basic institutional neutrality criteria represented an explicit attack on foundational “national and Islamic values across both Gaza and the West Bank.”

Crucially, Shuwaideh is among twelve UNRWA educators formally and publicly identified by state officials in July 2024 as active militant operatives—explicitly holding a post as a Hamas Squad Commander assigned within the Gaza Brigades organization.

Furthermore, architectural tracking as early as 2021 disclosed that an active Hamas military underground tunnel was built directly beneath the school facility Shuwaideh managed. Despite generic public denunciations from agency headquarters concerning subterranean violations, the tunnel system was confirmed to be fully functional when military forces operated throughout the sector in 2023.

Despite these structural ties, UNRWA kept him on the payroll. On July 20, 2024, Shuwaideh uploaded an image of himself wearing a UN operational vest. Later, On October 19, 2024, Shuwaideh posted a photo of himself working at a computer while wearing an official agency-issued UNRWA sweatshirt.

UNRWA finally suspended Shuwaideh on or about April 27, 2025—just 24-hours before the Israeli Foreign Ministry highlighted his documented Hamas alignment during a high-profile press conference detailing deep structural ties between the aid agency and terror networks. The timing suggests the suspension was a damage-control measure, as UNRWA had been provided detailed evidence about Shuwaideh ten months earlier yet failed to take any administrative action.

Shuwaideh hails from an influential, highly integrated Hamas family network. He shares direct family ties with Ahmed Shuwaideh, the former Hamas Minister of Justice and Prisoners under Ismail Haniyeh. Following his death in 2008, Ahmed was publicly eulogized by Haniyeh as “a towering role model… and a man of steadfastness and jihad.” On his personal channels, Mohammad Shuwaideh directly validated this legacy, characterizing the Hamas leader as “a man loved by all.”

3. Mohamed Ghorab

On June 14, an online public Facebook statement (archive link) confirmed that Habib Muhammad Garab (Mohamed Ghorab) was officially among the 70 dismissed UNRWA employees. He is characterized as a “beloved teacher, well-known in the Shati refugee camp.” Notably, this educator never attempted to maintain an appearance of neutrality. Records show that he openly described his marriage into the family of a convicted militant.

Exhibit 1: Celebration of a Convicted Family Militant

On his public profile, Ghorab directly hailed the high-profile release of militant “hero” Iyad Mahmoud Abu Hashim from Israeli prison. Abu Hashim had finished a 22-year sentence handed down after he attempted a stabbing attack targeting an IDF soldier at the Rafah border crossing. Ghorab explicitly stated, “Congratulations to my in-laws, Al Abu Hashim,” clarifying the direct family connection. (Archive link)

Exhibit 2: Support for the October 7th Atrocities

On October 10th, just three days after the Hamas massacres across southern Israel, Mohamed Ghorab went online to explicitly endorse them: (archive link)

“The number of martyrs is far lower than the death tolls from earthquakes and hurricanes; the end is the same, but blessed are those who die as martyrs…”

Exhibit 3: Explicit Incitement to Holy Warfare

Ghorab explicitly validated militant radicalism, stating: “The glory of Jihad is a struggle, glory is lined with blood and a struggle.” (archive link)

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“Our sustained documentation of UNRWA’s deep infiltration by Hamas — including our UNRWA Terror Network map identifying at least 400 culprits — together with the USAID Inspector General, has finally forced the agency’s hand,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch. “For years UN Watch has exposed how UNRWA teachers, school principals, and other employees are intertwined with Hamas, including terror chiefs heading the staff unions. Today’s action, while welcome, is only a small beginning.”

UN Watch strongly condemns UNRWA’s accompanying official statement, which attempts to evade responsibility. The agency claims it asked Israel for evidence but received no response, yet it simultaneously insists the dismissals “do not constitute in any way a validation of the claims” and were taken only for “safety and security” reasons. This incoherent position — firing people while refusing to acknowledge why — reveals an institution still more interested in protecting itself and its Hamas-embedded workforce than in genuine neutrality or accountability.

The reaction of the UNRWA Staff Union makes the problem even clearer. The union — long run by Hamas-linked employees, including terror chiefs such as Suhail al-Hindi, as documented by UN Watch — immediately rejected the decision as “arbitrary” and “without a fair investigation,” demanding its immediate reversal and declaring it would remain in permanent session to fight it.

“When the very union representing UNRWA employees is controlled by Hamas operatives,“ said Neuer, “it is unsurprising they object to removing their comrades. This is not the behavior of a neutral humanitarian agency, but of an organization captured by a terrorist group.”

While welcoming the dismissal of these 70 individuals, Neuer emphasized that “this is a drop in the bucket. UN Watch’s research indicates at least 1,500 additional Hamas-affiliated staff in Gaza alone, out of thousands more across the agency. Firing a handful while the structural rot remains does nothing to restore credibility.”

“UNRWA cannot be reformed. It must be shut down,” Neuer concluded. “Donor countries should immediately end all funding and work with an agency that indoctrinates children with hate in its schools, and functions as a political and military arm of Hamas. The United Nations has failed. Member states must now act decisively to dismantle this dangerous agency.”

About UN Watch

UN Watch is a Geneva-based NGO that monitors the United Nations, promotes human rights, and fights for a more accountable UN.

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