The secretary-general of the United Nations is being called out for mourning the death of an Unrwa employee, Mohammad Abu Itiwi, who doubled as a Hamas commander and has been blamed for the abduction of civilians, including dual American-Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

Itiwi was killed in an Israeli Air Force strike on Wednesday, according to the Israel Defense Force. On October 7, Itiwi reportedly led the attack on the Re’im bomb shelter where Goldberg-Polin and over two dozen other Nova music festival attendees were hiding.

Under Itiwi’s command, the Hamas terrorists hurled grenades at the shelter, killing sixteen victims. Four were abducted and brought into Gaza — including Goldberg-Polin, who was maimed in the onslaught and lost an arm. According to reports from survivors, Goldberg-Polin’s friend, Aner Shapira, a 22-year old IDF soldier who’d been attending the festival, threw back seven Hamas grenades before he was killed. 

Goldberg-Polin, who became one of the most well known faces of the Hamas abductions after his American parents tirelessly advocated for his release, was murdered by Hamas after 11 months in captivity as Israeli troops closed in.

Itiwi, who had been employed by Unrwa since July 2022, continued to operate as a Hamas commander after October 7, reportedly organizing and carrying out several attacks on IDF soldiers in the Gaza strip.  

In spite of Itiwi’s rap sheet, the UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, references a slain Unrwa colleague as evidence of “the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza” being “the worst we have seen since this horrific nightmare began” in a statement posted on X on Thursday.  

After airing his frustration at the UN’s polio vaccination rollout was suspended “due to relentless violence,” he tacked on: “And in the central Gaza Strip, a strike took the life of yet another one of our @UNRWA colleagues.” 

While Mr. Guterres doesn’t mention Itiwi by name, he was the only Unrwa employee killed in the prior day’s air force strike. 

By the time of his post, however, the IDF had already confirmed Itiwi’s involvement in terrorist activities. Not to mention that Unrwa was alerted to Itiwi’s terrorist side-gig back in July when Israel sent the agency a list of 108 Unrwa staff members who were alleged affiliates of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. 

Unrwa confirmed on Friday that Itiwi’s name was indeed listed in the July letter. However, the agency claims that it “responded to that letter immediately” but never received a response from the Israeli government after it had requested additional information from Israel regarding the allegations. 

“Israel has requested urgent clarifications from senior UN officials and an urgent investigation into the involvement of UNRWA employees in the Oct. 7 massacre,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, said in response. 

Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, Israel Katz, lambasted Mr. Guterres for reaching “new heights of hypocrisy and insensitivity,” he wrote in a post on X. “Who exactly is he mourning?” he asked, pointing out that Itiwi’s involvement in October 7 had already been publicized. Mr. Katz closed his statement by charging Mr. Guterres and Unrwa as being “complicit in war crimes.” 

So far, Unrwa has only fired 12 employees over their involvement in the October 7 attacks. 

Following the news of Itiwi’s death and participation in the Hamas massacre, Representative Michael McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, released a statement on Friday saying that as far as Congressional Republicans were concerned,  “No US funding will go to UNRWA.” 

“It came out that UNRWA has another murderous Hamas terrorist on its payroll. UNRWA admitted that it was informed by Israel about the terrorist, yet did nothing,” Mr. McCaul said in a statement posted on X. “Congress has banned funding to UNRWA, yet some want to lift that ban. Let me be clear: No US funding will go to UNRWA.”