EDITORIAL — When war gets complicated

A United Nations aid worker was killed recently in an Israeli attack in Gaza. But this isn’t your regular collateral damage story; because according to the Israel Defense Force (IDF), that aid worker, Mohammad Abu Itiwi, was also a commander of Hamas.

The IDF said Itiwi was hired by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in July 2002 and later took part in the October 7, 2023 terror attack where he was allegedly involved in killing civilians and taking hostages.

The UNRWA has not denied Itiwi was a Hamas commander, and while UNRWA did fire some aid workers suspected of taking part in the attack, Itiwi seemed to have been allowed to stay on until the day he was killed.

This is when war gets complicated; when those who aren’t supposed to take part in it do so or are forced to do so, or when some people who are no longer fit for a certain job are kept on instead.

Hamas has always had a practice of using medical personnel to further their cause and also using medical facilities to house their bases and even to keep hostages.

It can be recalled that for the longest time Hamas denied that they were keeping hostages or basing their operations in Gaza’s hospitals until damning video evidence of Hamas gunmen dragging a bound hostage into a hospital surfaced. Then later, a cache of Hamas weapons and equipment was also found in another hospital basement.

Given his status as an aid worker and someone who represents the UN, Itiwi should not have taken part in the attacks, or at least resigned before he did. Given Itiwi’s involvement in the October 7 attack, the UNRWA should have terminated his employment immediately after.

Everyone gets a black eye here; the IDF for attacking aid workers, Hamas for using aid workers as warriors, and the UNRWA for keeping a terrorist on the payroll.

Of course, the UNRWA might have kept Itiwi on because he was another badly-needed pair of useful hands, or he might have decided to stay on with the UNRWA out of compassion for his fellow Gazans suffering under Israeli attacks. We might never know.

If so, this offers another dimension into the tragedy currently going on in Gaza.