The Israel Defense Forces said it killed in an airstrike Mohammad Abu Itiwi, a senior commander from Hamas’s elite Nukhba unit, who was employed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees.

“Following this, our representatives solicited clarifications from senior officials in the UN and international community and requested an urgent investigation into the involvement of @UNRWA employees in the October 7th Massacre” tweeted the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories unit (COGAT) on Thursday night.

UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma confirmed that Itiwi’s name was included in an Israeli letter in July which identified other Hamas figures on the agency staff.

“The UNRWA commissioner general responded to that letter immediately stating that any allegation is taken seriously. He urged [Israeli officials] to cooperate with the agency by providing more information so he could take action,” Touma said.

UNRWA has been under fire for months, with Israeli officials demanding the agency be stripped of its authority in Gaza and defunded amid revelations that members of the agency’s staff participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks. The Israeli government is bypassing UNRWA in distributing humanitarian aid and advancing legislation to label the agency as a terror organization and remove its diplomatic immunity, tax-exempt status and other legal benefits.

Palestinian refugees are the only refugee population with its own dedicated. UN agency. The rest of the world’s refugees fall under the mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Israeli officials have called for UNRWA to be closed and for Palestinian refugees to be brought under the responsibility of the UNHCR.

In June, more than 100 survivors of Hamas’s October 7 attacks filed a $1 billion lawsuit against UNRWA, accusing the agency of “aiding and abetting” the terror group.