- A damning new report presented today before the Bundestag exposes how Hamas leaders infiltrated and now dominate the education system of UNRWA in Gaza and Lebanon. Hamas chiefs simultaneously served as school principals, union leaders, and senior educators - while openly glorifying terrorism, recruiting children into militant activity, and blocking reforms such as Holocaust education.
The 218-page detailed investigation by Swiss human rights group UN Watch, titled Schools in the Grip of Terror, exposes how the UN was aware of Hamas’s control over its schools yet failed to act.
“For years, governments have been writing billion-dollar checks to UNRWA believing they were investing in peace and tolerance,” said UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer.
“Our investigation reveals the shocking truth: UNRWA’s classrooms have been hijacked by Hamas and turned into incubators of hate. Donor states must confront the reality that they are financing terror by proxy.”
UN Watch’s new report focuses on two case studies - Suhail Al-Hindi in Gaza and Fateh Sharif in Lebanon - confirming these widespread neutrality failures and revealing that their successors in UNRWA unions are also Hamas operatives.
Part I of the report documents how senior Hamas operative Suhail Al-Hindi captured UNRWA’s education system in Gaza. From 2006 to 2017, Al-Hindi was simultaneously a Hamas leader, an UNRWA school principal, and head of the UNRWA Gaza Staff Union, overseeing 8,000 teachers and 220,000 students. Although UNRWA was well aware of Al-Hindi’s Hamas connections, it chose to ignore them.
Since his resignation from UNRWA in 2017, Al-Hindi has emerged as a key member of Hamas’s leadership while retaining his influence over UNRWA in Gaza. Most recently, Al-Hindi was seen alongside senior Hamas leaders meeting the group’s Iranian backers in Qatar.
Part II examines UNRWA employment of Hamas figures in Lebanon, focusing on Fateh Sharif - an UNRWA school principal and head of the UNRWA Lebanon Teachers’ Union, responsible for 39,000 students and 2,000 teachers in 64 schools. When Sharif was killed in an Israeli strike on September 30, 2024, Hamas hailed him as its leader in Lebanon.
For over a decade, Sharif posted openly about his Hamas links, publishing photos with terrorist leaders. Yet when asked why a Hamas commander was employed for decades by UNRWA, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric replied: “Most people who are engaged in underground organizations try not to have their involvement known publicly.”
This comprehensive new report shows the opposite: Hamas leaders flaunted their affiliations - and UNRWA did nothing.
Click Here for the Full Report
