Protest breaks out in Beirut after UNRWA suspends Lebanese teacher
Palestinian aid agency does not explain why staffer put on leave, but many speculate it was due to affiliation with Hamas
Dozens of people protested outside the Beirut office of the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) on Wednesday, after it put a staff member on administrative leave over possible violations of staff conduct regulations.
School teacher Fathi al-Sharif was put on leave for three months without pay, as the UN agency investigated alleged activities “that are in violation of the Agency’s regulatory framework governing staff conduct,” the agency told Reuters in a statement.
UNRWA said it could not discuss further details. It did not say whether the teacher was accused of membership in a terrorist group.
Sharif spoke at the protest on Wednesday, where a crowd had gathered to support him. Several people told Reuters that he had been accused of links to Hamas, the Palestinian terror group which led the murderous onslaught in southern Israel on October 7.
“The job can go, and we will stay!” he told those gathered.
UNRWA, which provides services including education and health to Palestinian refugees across the region, has been in crisis, after multiple countries froze funding over accusations that some of its employees took part in the October 7 attack, and that many others are affiliated with Hamas.
Israel informed the UN that it would no longer approve UNRWA food convoys to the north of Gaza, where famine is possible by May, according to a UN-backed report published last week. An Israeli government spokesman said on Monday that Israel would stop working with UNRWA altogether in Gaza.
Earlier this year, Israel accused 12 UNRWA employees in the Gaza Strip of taking part in the Hamas-led attack on Israeli soil on October 7 in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were murdered and 253 were taken hostage.
Israel launched a land, sea, and air offensive in response that the Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza say has left more than 32,000 Palestinians dead, a figure which cannot be independently verified and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Israel’s allegations prompted a suspension of funding by more than a dozen donors, some of whom have since resumed funding.
The accusations also sparked an investigation by a UN oversight body and a separate review process by UNRWA, which its Lebanon representative, Dorothee Klaus, told Reuters would examine safeguards protecting its neutrality and independence.
She said she expected her branch of the agency would be consulted in a possible review of whether staff in Lebanon were affiliated with terrorist groups.
