Strike on UNRWA facility in Rafah took out Hamas commander who stole aid, says IDF

The Israel Defense Forces said that a strike Wednesday on an UNRWA facility in Rafah was a successful operation to kill a Hamas commander.

Hamas claimed that five people were killed in the strike, and UNRWA said that at least one of its staff members was killed.

The IDF said that Muhammad Abu Hasna, a commander in the terror group’s operations unit, was eliminated in the strike. According to a joint statement from the IDF and the Shin Bet, Abu Hasna was involved in seizing humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip and distributing it to Hamas operatives.

Abu Hasna was involved in “integrating extensive activity of the various Hamas units, was in contact with the field operatives of Hamas and directed them,” the IDF and Shin Bet said in a joint statement.

The statement said Abu Hasna was also tasked with a Hamas intelligence war room that collected information on IDF movements in the Strip.

The IDF and Shin Bet also accused Abu Hasna of involvement in seizing humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip and distributing it to Hamas operatives.

Abu Hasna’s elimination “significantly harms the functioning of various Hamas units in Rafah,” the statement added.

The IDF published footage of the strike on Abu Hasna.

מוקדם יותר היום כלי טיס חיסל באופן ממוקד את מחמד אבו חסנה, מחבל חמאס במחלקת המבצעים של מרחב רפיח. התקיפה בוצעה בעקבות מידע מודיעיני מדויק של אמ״ן ושב״כ.

חסנה תכלל פעילות נרחבת של יחידות חמאס השונות, היה בקשר עם פעילי השטח של חמאס והפעיל אותם>> pic.twitter.com/r7fn37yGoh

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 13, 2024

“At least one UNRWA staff member was killed and another 22 were injured when Israeli forces hit a food distribution centre in the eastern part of Rafah” in southern Gaza, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said in a statement.

The agency’s chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said the “attack on one of the very few remaining UNRWA distribution centres in the Gaza Strip comes as food supplies are running out, hunger is widespread and, in some areas, turning into famine.”

Israel has accused at least a dozen UNRWA staffers of being active Hamas members involved in the October 7 massacre, and many others of being tied to the terror group, leading many countries to freeze funding to the UN agency.

The United States and more than a dozen countries suspended funding for UNRWA in January after Israel accused 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the deadly October 7 Hamas attack in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 253.

The UN has launched an investigation into the allegations, and UNRWA fired some staff after Israel provided the agency with information on the allegations, which were later expanded to include 14 staffers.

The US — which is UNRWA’s largest donor, providing $300 million-$400 million annually — said it wants to see the results of that inquiry and corrective measures taken before it will consider resuming funding.

On Wednesday, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths lamented the “devastating news” of the strike on the UNRWA facility, saying on social media: “How are we to maintain aid operations when our teams and supplies are constantly under threat?”

“They must be protected,” he said. “This war has to stop.”

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, told reporters that “the Israeli army received the coordinates… of this facility.”

In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a news briefing said he had not yet received details of the incident but said Israel must protect humanitarian workers despite tough conditions.

“You’re in a war zone. You have a terrorist group that is firing from hospitals, from schools, from apartment buildings, but the Israeli military, the Israeli government have a responsibility and an obligation to do everything possible to ensure that the humanitarians can do their jobs,” said Blinken.

Blinken said the incident “shows the imperative of having much better and consistent deconfliction with humanitarian workers.”