UNRWA school principal Imad Yousif El Samhouri was among 136 staff members remembered by the United Nations at its annual memorial ceremony. Weeks later, UN Watch published material in which Hamas presented him as a field commander of its Al-Qassam Brigades. The UN says it knew nothing of these allegations at the time. That very explanation does not make the case smaller, but larger.
On June 8, 2026, the leadership of the United Nations gathered in New York for the United Nations’ annual memorial ceremony for staff members who had lost their lives in the line of duty during the previous year. UN Secretary-General António Guterres remembered a total of 136 people. Ninety-seven were civilian staff members, while 39 belonged to military or police peacekeeping missions. Eighty alone worked for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in the Gaza Strip.
Among the names was Imad Yousif El Samhouri.
Annalena Baerbock attended the ceremony as president of the 80th UN General Assembly. Together with Guterres and the then president of the Security Council, she took part in the symbolic lighting of the memorial flame. Samhouri’s name was later read out during the roll call of names.
At first, this would have been little more than one line in a long list of deceased UN staff members.
Then a second biography emerged.
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UNRWA school principal and Hamas commander?
The Geneva-based organization UN Watch published extensive material on Samhouri in mid-August. According to it, the UNRWA school principal worked for years as a teacher and later as a principal at UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip.
At the same time, UN Watch documented a so-called martyr video released by Hamas. According to the organization, the video identifies Samhouri as a field commander in the Muhammad al-Shamali Battalion of the Al-Qassam Brigades. The published material also shows him in a military setting and in connection with tunnels.
Thus, the decisive attribution comes not merely from Israeli authorities or a political opposition organization. UN Watch relies on material from Hamas itself.
Journalistically, an important boundary nevertheless remains: The publicly available sources do not allow an independent, complete reconstruction of Samhouri’s military activities. It is established, however, that such Hamas material exists, that UN Watch published it, and that the United Nations has now officially responded to the allegations arising from it.
UN Watch also makes further allegations. Samhouri allegedly publicly displayed contacts with Hamas officials, disseminated corresponding content on social media, and, as the person responsible for a UNRWA school, enabled events with actors close to Hamas. These claims currently originate largely from UN Watch’s investigation and are therefore not treated as independently established facts.
The central contradiction exists even without these additional allegations: After his death, a long-serving UNRWA school principal appears in material in which Hamas presents him as a military official.
The UN says it knew nothing about it
On August 21, 2026, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, was confronted directly with the case at the daily press briefing.
A journalist recalled that Samhouri’s name had been read out at the memorial ceremony on June 8 and that Hamas had later identified him as a field commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades. She asked whether the Secretary-General would apologize for the honor.
Dujarric explained that UNRWA had not been informed of these allegations when the name was included. In the official UN transcript dated August 21, 2026 the decisive passage reads: “had those allegations been raised before, his name would likely not have been included.”
Thus, the UN itself says: Had the allegations been available earlier, Samhouri’s name would probably not have been included in the memorial list.
When asked whether his name would now be withdrawn, Dujarric again referred to the information available at the time. He explained that the name had been included on the basis of the information available then. Had the allegations been conveyed through official channels in time, he would not have been included.
He was then explicitly asked whether this meant there would be no correction.
Dujarric’s answer: “What was said was said.”
He then made clear once again that, had the allegations been known beforehand, Samhouri’s name probably would not have been included.
This is not an interpretation by UN Watch or wording from a German media outlet. It is the documented response of the UN Secretary-General’s spokesperson.
Dujarric did not announce a formal retraction of the honor at this briefing.
The reference to Israel is part of the story
At the same briefing, Dujarric raised another point. UNRWA regularly forwards its staff lists to the Israeli authorities. Samhouri’s name was also on the list forwarded in 2024.
According to Dujarric, no concerns about this name were raised by Israel at the time.
This point is essential to a fair assessment. Anyone who omits it leaves out a significant part of the UN’s defense.
It nevertheless provides only limited exoneration for UNRWA.
The fact that Israel raised no objection to a forwarded staff list does not answer the question of what internal vetting mechanisms UNRWA has for its employees, and particularly for the leaders of its schools.
An employer cannot fully delegate oversight of its own staff to an external state.
The question is especially relevant in the case of an UNRWA school principal. If the military role presented by Hamas were confirmed, civilian work for UNRWA and a military role within Hamas could have existed side by side over an extended period without the organization, by its own account, knowing about it.
That is precisely where the institutional problem lies.
Germany provided UNRWA with substantial sums
Germany is also part of this political context.
According to the German government, UNRWA received €92 million from German humanitarian aid funds in 2022 alone and €130.5 million in 2023. Additional funds came from development cooperation, along with multi-year commitments. For 2023, the Federal Foreign Office put the German government’s total payments to UNRWA at €206.5 million.
Following the serious allegations against UNRWA employees in connection with the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023, Germany initially suspended parts of its funding.
The German government later resumed its support.
Baerbock defended this decision in the German Bundestag. She referred to investigations, the review of individual allegations, and measures to monitor the funds.
Asked how it could be ensured in the future that German taxpayers’ money would not benefit terrorist organizations, Baerbock said, among other things, that Germany did not simply give UNRWA “blank checks.”
This gives the case of UNRWA school principal Samhouri political significance beyond the memorial ceremony.
There is no evidence that Baerbock knew of Samhouri’s alleged military role when she attended the UN memorial ceremony. Nor is there evidence that she was personally involved in selecting the names of those honored.
The serious allegation is therefore not that Baerbock knowingly honored a Hamas commander.
The relevant question is rather: How robust were the control mechanisms used to justify continued political and financial support for UNRWA?
On the very day commemorating victims of terrorism
The timing of the UN statement contains a striking irony.
On August 21, the United Nations observed the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism. At the beginning of the same press briefing, Dujarric reported on the event and the Secretary-General’s message to victims and survivors.
Shortly afterward, he had to explain why, at an earlier UN memorial ceremony, a man had been honored whom Hamas presented in its own material as a field commander.
This juxtaposition does not need to be constructed. The chronology itself provides it.
Baerbock is part of the story, but not its center
Some of the reporting focuses primarily on Annalena Baerbock.
Baerbock did not select UNRWA school principal Samhouri. There is no evidence that she personally reviewed his name or knew of the allegations that later became public.
Anyone who turns this into a claim that Baerbock deliberately honored a Hamas terrorist is asserting more than the sources support.
Her political responsibility lies elsewhere.
As president of the UN General Assembly, she was part of the memorial ceremony. As Germany’s former foreign minister, she also represents a government that continued supporting UNRWA after serious allegations and justified that decision with controls and reforms.
The justified question is therefore not why Baerbock did not know the details of Samhouri’s personnel file.
The question is how robust the institutional controls actually were.
“We did not know” is not a conclusion
The case of UNRWA school principal Samhouri touches on one of the central questions that has accompanied UNRWA for years: How reliably can the organization identify the political and military affiliations of its own employees?
The answer that it knew nothing of the allegations initially explains only the information available at the time.
It does not answer why nothing was known.
If the information presented by Hamas itself about Samhouri’s military role were confirmed, it would have to be clarified how a long-serving UNRWA school principal could perform such a dual role, what indications existed, and what internal controls actually operated.
The United Nations has itself now acknowledged that the allegations known today would probably have changed the decision at the time.
Thus, the question of whether the honor would have taken place had this information been known has, in practice, been answered by the UN itself.
Anyone who demands trust in UNRWA’s controls after such a case must be able to explain more than merely why nothing was known at the time.
ℹ️ Factual basis and primary sources for the article 📑
▶️ United Nations Transcripts, 21 August 2026:
Daily Press Briefing of 21 August 2026
Documents Stéphane Dujarric’s statements on the UNRWA personnel list transmitted to Israel in 2024, the lack of any Israeli objection, and the probable exclusion of Samhouri had the allegations been known beforehand, as well as the response “What was said was said”.
▶️ United Nations, 8 June 2026:
Secretary-General’s remarks to the Annual Memorial Service
Confirms the memorial service for 136 UN staff members, including 80 UNRWA staff members in the Gaza Strip.
▶️ UN Watch, 14 August 2026:
UN Leaders Lit an Eternal Flame for a Hamas Commander
Documents material published by Hamas concerning Imad Yousif El Samhouri, as well as the further allegations regarding his connections and activities. These additional details are expressly identified in the article as research by UN Watch.
▶️ Federal Foreign Office, 29 January 2024:
Statements by the Federal Foreign Office at the Government Press Conference
Puts the German government’s payments to UNRWA for 2023 at a total of 206.5 million euros, of which 130.5 million euros came from Federal Foreign Office funds.
▶️ German Bundestag, 16 October 2024:
Plenary Proceedings 20/193
Documents Annalena Baerbock’s statements on resuming support for UNRWA, review procedures, and the monitoring of German funds.
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