The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have confirmed the killing of a Hamas commander, Mohammad Abu Itiwi, who they say was involved in multiple attacks, including the assault on the Reim bomb shelter where U.S. citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin was abducted. The IDF also claims that Abu Itiwi was simultaneously employed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Abu Itiwi, a commander in Hamas’ elite Nukhba force, was killed by the Israeli Airforce on Wednesday during a joint operation with the Israeli Security Agency.
UNRWA has not yet responded to a request for comment.
According to images provided by the IDF, Abu Itiwi had been working for UNRWA since July 2022, and he was photographed at the Reim bomb shelter near the Tribe of Nova music festival, where attendees sought shelter from Hamas attacks.
The Reim bomb shelter has become a symbol of the October 7th massacre, where Goldberg-Polin, his best friend Aner Shapira, and 25 others attempted to hide from Hamas attackers.
The IDF alleges that Abu Itiwi led the attack on the shelter, where Hamas terrorists, upon finding dozens hiding in the shelter on Route 232 in southern Israel, repeatedly threw grenades at them.
Accounts describe Shapira, a 22-year-old IDF soldier, attempting to calm the terrified people in the shelter and promising to protect them.
“I’ll catch the grenades and throw them back – and if I miss any, you throw them back,” one account of the horrific event was described for the Times of Israel.
Shapira managed to throw back seven grenades before he was killed.
During the attack on the shelter, Goldberg-Polin’s arm was blown off from the elbow down. He managed to apply a tourniquet before he and others from the shelter were abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, where he was eventually released 11 months later.
Twenty-seven people were in the shelter; 16 were killed, four were kidnapped, and seven survived.
Abu Itiwi reportedly directed and carried out numerous attacks on IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip.
Representatives from Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, an agency under the Israeli Ministry of Defense, have contacted senior officials in the United Nations and the international community, requesting an urgent investigation into the involvement of UNRWA employees in the October 7th Massacre.
UNRWA has faced similar allegations involving ties to Hamas in the past, although it has denied many of these claims.
In recent months, the UN has dismissed at least 12 staff members after finding they may have been involved in the October 7 attacks.”