U.N. Refuses Apology After Honoring Hamas Commander As ‘Colleague’

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Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on May 20, 2026. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)

The United Nations memorialized a Hamas terrorist commander alongside its fallen employees — then refused to apologize when exposed.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and U.N. General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock honored Imad El Samhouri at an annual memorial service in June. El Samhouri worked as a teacher and principal at an UNRWA school in Rafah when an Israeli airstrike killed him in June 2025.

What the U.N. didn’t mention: El Samhouri was a well-known Hamas field commander who posed in military garb surrounded by guns and grenades.

“We have chosen jihad as our path. Death in the cause of Allah is our highest aspiration.”

That’s El Samhouri in a “martyrdom video” U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer posted to X. In the clip, the Hamas commander taunted Israel over the extensive tunnel network Hamas built by stealing humanitarian aid money.

“The Zionist enemy never imagines we will emerge from beneath the ground,” El Samhouri chortled in the video.

Neuer documented how El Samhouri recruited other Hamas members into UNRWA schools, building a terrorist network the U.N. seemed completely oblivious to. El Samhouri moved between several UNRWA facilities over the years, gaining access to thousands of Palestinian children.

“Everyone in UNRWA Rafah knew about El Samhouri. He was a big man on campus, openly active with senior Hamas officials,” Neuer noted. The Hamas commander openly celebrated kidnappings and terrorist attacks on social media.

One of the “athletic clubs” El Samhouri recruited for was funded by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. The club’s major “athletic” endeavor: teaching Palestinian children how to use firearms.

In an open letter to Guterres and Baerbock on August 14, Neuer asked the U.N. officials to “finally acknowledge that UNRWA is simply unwilling or unable to root out the terrorists who have taken over its schools.”

“Excellencies, how many UNRWA teachers must emerge from Hamas tunnels before you admit that the terrorists are not merely beneath UNRWA’s schools, but actually inside them?” he wrote.

Neuer reminded Guterres that he called it “the privilege of my life” to work alongside the people named at the eternal flame ceremony — that he was committed to “carrying forward their work” and the fallen employees “made our world a better place.”

“Now that the man you praised has been exposed as a Hamas field commander, do you stand by those words? Is Imad El Samhouri’s work — the jihad, the terror tunnels, the indoctrination of children — the work you intend to carry forward?” Neuer demanded.

Neuer challenged Guterres and Baerbock to retract the tribute, apologize to Hamas victims, and order an independent investigation into how a terrorist commander ran UNRWA schools for more than a decade.

On Wednesday, Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric said there would be no retraction or apology for the honors bestowed on El Samhouri.

Dujarric repeatedly insisted the list of names for the ceremony was “shared with Israeli authorities” and “no issues were raised.”

“If those allegations had been shared with us at the time through official channels, it would not have been included,” Dujarric said.

“What was said was said, and we’re now stating our position, which makes it clear, had we known and had we been told, his name would probably not have been included,” he added.

“Yes, we honored a Hamas commander. No, we won’t apologize. No, we won’t correct it. And somehow, this is Israel’s fault.”

That’s how Neuer sarcastically summarized the U.N. response.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said the U.N. spokesperson’s response reflects Guterres’ entire tenure.

“The organization has lost its moral compass. It is because of terrorists like Imad Youssif El Samhouri and others that Israel ended UNRWA’s operations in Israel,” Danon said.

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