UN Watch demands apology from Burbank and Guterres

UN Watch demands apology from Baerbock and Guterres

UN Watch criticized the participation of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in a June 8 memorial service for UN staff killed in 2025. The organization released footage from the event on August 14.

According to Die Welt, the ceremony commemorated a total of 136 UN staff who died in 2025. According to the UN, 80 of them were employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also attended the ceremony, where he lit a candle with Baerbock.

The main factor that caused the controversy was the reading of the name of Imad Al-Samhouri at the ceremony. He previously worked as a teacher in the Gaza Strip and headed one of the UNRWA schools. According to UN Watch, Al-Samhouri was also a commander in the military structure of Hamas.

In an open letter, the organization’s director, Hillel Neuer, called on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Annalena Baerbock to apologize. Neuer demanded an explanation for the commemoration of a person who is depicted as a Hamas military commander at the UN ceremony.

UN Watch bases its claims, among other things, on a video released by Hamas dedicated to Al-Samhouri. According to the organization, this video shows Al-Samhouri as a field commander of one of the battalions of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing. UN Watch also points to other social media materials alleging that Al-Samhouri had contacts with Hamas representatives and supported views that glorified terrorism.

However, Die Welt drew attention to an important point: UN Watch’s open letter did not provide independent evidence to support these claims.

Hillel Neuer also accused UNRWA of not taking effective measures to combat the activities of Hamas-linked structures in its schools. According to his claim, Al-Samhouri invited Hamas representatives to schools and recruited students to organizations associated with the movement.

UN Watch also criticized Berlin’s allocation of funds to UNRWA during the time when Baerbock was German Foreign Minister. Neuer noted that Germany had allocated several hundred million euros to the agency at that time and had not taken warnings about Hamas members entering UNRWA structures seriously enough.

UNRWA's activities have been the subject of significant controversy since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel has accused 12 UNRWA staff members of involvement in the 7 October attack. A number of major donor countries have subsequently temporarily suspended funding to the agency. These include the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia. Canada, Sweden and Italy have also temporarily suspended payments, but have since resumed them. In 2024, the Israeli parliament passed a resolution restricting UNRWA's activities in the country.

The current controversy revolves around the reading of Al-Samhouri's name at a UN memorial service for fallen staff and allegations of his possible role in Hamas.