Hamas Commander Employed by UNRWA Who Participated in October 7 Massacre Eliminated in IDF Strike

Latest Developments

A Hamas commander who directed the murder of Israeli civilians seeking shelter after they fled from the terrorist group’s massacre at the Nova dance music festival on October 7, 2023, was eliminated in an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation on October 24. A joint statement from the IDF and the Shin Bet intelligence agency confirmed the killing of Mohammad Abu Itiwi, a commander in Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force, highlighting that since July 2022, he had been an employee of UNRWA, the UN agency solely dedicated to the descendants of Palestinian refugees.

Abu Itiwi led the attack on a bomb shelter on Route 232 in the Re’im area of southern Israel, where 27 of the Nova revelers had sought shelter after escaping from the slaughter at the festival site. Sixteen of them were murdered, while four — including Israeli American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin — were abducted and hauled to Gaza as hostages. Osama Abu Assa, an Israeli Arab security guard at the festival, was murdered as he pleaded with the Hamas terrorists to spare those inside the shelter. A friend of Goldberg-Polin, off-duty soldier Avner Shapira, managed to delay the assault by throwing back several of the grenades lobbed by the terrorists into the shelter until one exploded, killing him and maiming Goldberg-Polin, who was executed in Gaza in August after nearly 11 months in captivity.

UNRWA was alerted to Abu Itiwi’s role with Hamas in an official letter sent to the agency by the Israeli authorities in July. The letter included a list of 100 members of UNRWA’s staff identified by the Israeli authorities for their affiliations with Hamas and other terrorist organizations. The agency took no action, however, claiming that the Israeli government did not respond to requests for further information. Following Abu Itiwi’s elimination, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres mourned the “strike took the life of yet another one of our UNRWA colleagues” in a social media post, without mentioning his position as a Hamas commander or his participation in the October 7 atrocities.

Expert Analysis

“Within hours of the October 7 atrocities unfolding, Israel formed a taskforce with the sacred mission of identifying, tracking, and locating every single terrorist involved — from the top Hamas leadership to their lowliest field operatives and support staff. The objective was to ensure that no one would be spared retribution, no matter how long it took or how onerous the investment required. Abu Itiwi joins a long list of murderers with whom justice caught up.” — Mark Dubowitz, FDD CEO

“It has now become almost rote to learn that Hamas killers were also on the payroll of a supposedly ‘humanitarian’ UN agency. Each disclosure of an UNRWA employee’s crimes against humanity is another nail in the coffin of UNRWA’s credibility.”  — Ben Cohen, FDD Senior Analyst and Rapid Response Manager

Related Analysis

“UNRWA Exposed: Examining the Agency’s Mission and Failures,” FDD Testimony, January 30, 2024

“Despite Pressure From Washington, Israel Considers Curtailing UNRWA,” by Enia Krivine

“Now that UN admits employee involvement in Oct. 7, it’s time to end UNRWA,” by David May and Richard Goldberg

“Defying Outside Pressure, Israeli Parliamentarians Vow to Proceed With Legislation Targeting ‘Terrorist Organization’ UNRWA,” FDD Flash Brief

“Hamas Leader in Lebanon Eliminated in Israeli Air Strike Was UNRWA Employee,” FDD Flash Brief