A U.N. human rights group confirmed Hamas’ leader in Lebanon, who was recently killed by Israeli strikes, was their employee. 

Fateh Sherif was killed Monday in an airstrike on the al-Bass refugee camp in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, along with his wife and children.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) noted that Sherif had been on suspension with the organization since March but had not been fired. 

‘Fateh Al Sharif was an UNRWA employee who was put on administrative leave without pay in March and was undergoing an investigation following allegations that UNRWA received about his political activities,’ an UNRWA spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

At the time, his suspension sparked widespread protests and strikes by teachers in Lebanon. 

‘Sherif was responsible for coordinating Hamas’ terror activities in Lebanon with Hezbollah operatives. He was also responsible for Hamas’ efforts in Lebanon to recruit operatives and acquire weapons,’ the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and Israeli Security Agency (ISA) said in a joint statement. 

‘He led the Hamas terrorist organization’s force build-up efforts in Lebanon and operated to advance Hamas’ interests in Lebanon, both politically and militarily.’

Israel alleges UNRWA is overrun with terrorist sympathizers, a claim the agency denies. 

Sherif was the principal of the UNRWA-run Deir Yassin Secondary School in al-Bass and head of the UNRWA teachers’ union, which has around 2,000 teachers. 

‘Through that position, and as principal of a large UNRWA school, he was able to recruit operatives, and to brainwash generations of Palestinians to engage in terrorism,’ Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, told Fox News Digital. 

Neuer and his organization had long pushed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini to fire Sherif and said they provided both with a dossier proving his involvement in Hamas. 

‘Everyone at UNRWA knew. Yet they refused to act,’ Neuer said. 

‘Even as school principal al-Sharif openly incited terrorism on social media for over a decade, UNRWA did nothing. They failed to fire or even condemn their school principal for being a Hamas terror chief. Only this year, when there was intense scrutiny of UNRWA, did they finally slap him on the wrist with a suspension – while for months insisting that they were conducting ‘an investigation.’’

The Sherif killing unfolded as another terrorist group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said three of its leaders were killed in an airstrike that hit the upper floor of an apartment building in Beirut, according to Reuters. 

Israeli officials said Monday they will ‘continue to operate against anyone who poses a threat to the civilians of the State of Israel.’ 

Israel over the past few days has expanded its attacks on Iran-backed militant groups in the region, also killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike over the weekend.

While it weighs a full-on ground offensive, the IDF has been launching small special forces operations in southern Lebanon. 

A reported Israeli airstrike hit central Beirut, the first strike at the heart of the capital since 2006, in an escalation of the bombing that local officials say has killed more than 1,000 in Lebanon. 

Iran has vowed Israel’s ‘criminal acts’ would not go unanswered, while President Biden has insisted all-out war in the Middle East ‘must be avoided.’

Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who is currently running to be the next vice president of the United States, once said in a gubernatorial debate that he supports ‘single-payer health care,’ also known as ‘Medicare-for-all.’

‘I think that’s probably the path where we end up,’ Walz said in a 2018 debate while running for governor when asked, ‘Are you for single-payer?’

‘And I say that because, be very clear about this, there were no protections for preexisting conditions before the ACA,’ Walz continued. ‘A vote for the ACA was the first time in this nation’s history we had those protections and making sure people have that protection, making sure they were covered, and then making sure we were focused on preventative care, people were finally getting that under the ACA, we started to see health outcomes improve and that’s the real key to driving down insurance premium prices.’

Walz went on to say ‘let’s be very clear’ that there is ‘no market in health care.’

‘Because markets by nature would be a failure if someone didn’t have it, there’s not going to be, you cannot simply shrink a pool to the sickest people and say that’s where we are going to manage them when they’re in crisis. That’s not the way to go about this. The way to go about this is making sure everybody has that preventative care, making sure everybody has that access on the front end, you start to drive down prices. The ACA did that.’

Walz’s opponent, Republican Jeff Johnson, then pressed Walz on the issue.

‘I’m not sure what your answer was. Do you support single-payer health care?’

‘Yes,’ Walz said. ‘That was the answer I just gave you.’

Johnson interjected, ‘Are you for it?’

‘Yes,’ Walz said. ‘I’m going to push for not paying twice as much as any other industrialized nation. Getting half for it. I’m making sure that the 14 top nations that get the best returns at the least cost make sure you cut out that piece that is simply payer getting between people and their doctors.’

When Johnson countered that ‘single-payer’ means ‘everybody loses their insurance’ and ‘forced on to one government plan,’ Walz countered, ‘We can do better.’

The comments from Walz come under the backdrop of Vice President Kamala Harris supporting ‘Medicare-for-all’ when she ran for president in 2019. However, in August, her campaign claimed she will not push the subject of single-payer or ‘Medicare-for-all’ during the campaign.

In 2019, Fox News spoke to Harris in the hallways of Capitol Hill, asking about her plans for providing health care.

‘How important is it to your health care plan to get rid of private insurance companies? Because there is some confusion about that,’ Peter Doocy asked Harris on Jan. 30, 2019.

‘I’m glad you asked. Yeah. So, the bottom line and the most important is that everyone have access to health care,’ Harris said. ‘That is the goal. That is the purpose for me supporting the policy of ‘Medicare-for-all.’

‘If Congress votes in a way that reflects the values and desires of the American people, then Congress will vote for a policy that gives everyone access to health care,’ she later said.

Her proposed solution was to provide ‘Medicare-for-all’ because ‘Medicare works’ and ‘it’s popular.’

”Medicare-for-all’ will cover all medically necessary services, including emergency room visits, doctor visits, vision, dental, hearing aids, mental health, and substance-use disorder treatment, and comprehensive reproductive health care services,’ Harris wrote. ‘It will also allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign for comment but did not receive a response.

Fox News’ Greg Wehner and Peter Doocy contributed reporting.

The Pentagon has finalized plans to wrap up the U.S.-led mission to fight ISIS by next year, with many U.S. troops leaving the bases they have occupied for much of the past two decades. 

The Biden administration insists their plan is not to fully pull out of the nation but declined to say how many of the 2,500 troops currently stationed in Iraq will remain. 

‘I think it’s fair to say that, you know, our footprint is going to be changing within the country,’ Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Friday.

The Iraqi government announced earlier this month it had reached a deal with the Biden administration to remove most U.S. troops from its nation over the next two years. 

U.S. officials disputed characterizations of the plan as a withdrawal, prompting confusion about what the American presence there would look like over the coming months. 

‘I’d like to emphasize that this is an evolution of the military mission in Iraq,’ a senior Biden administration official said. 

The current mission is now set to end by September 2025. 

The notion of pulling troops out of Iraq has prompted concerns about a lack of support for the 900 troops currently stationed in Syria. 

‘Not only will it undercut the fight against ISIS, but more importantly, in the effort to restrain Iran, forces in Iraq — particularly in the Kurdish north — are very important. We need Iraq forces in order to support our troops in northeast Syria,’ Ambassador James Jeffrey, former presidential envoy to the coalition to combat ISIS in Iraq, told Fox News Digital. 

‘We have a very effective ally there, the Kurds, the Syrian Kurds, that we want to not abandon,’ he went on, adding that a U.S. withdrawal would allow space for Russia and Iran to tighten their grip on the nation. 

‘​​At the end of the day, it’s a decision of the Iraqi Government, and if the Iraqi government is being pressured by the Iranians, just as they were in 2011, and want us out, then we have no choice.’

Tehran and its influence have infiltrated the Iraqi government in a way that some say means a U.S. presence indirectly benefits Iran. 

‘With the current Iraqi government heavily influenced by Iranian-backed Shia factions, including the Popular Mobilization Front, maintaining U.S. troops doesn’t effectively counterbalance Iran. In fact, our resources end up indirectly benefiting those aligned with Iranian interests, making this a misguided strategy,’ director of Concerned Veterans for America and Iraq War veteran Jason Beardsley told Fox News Digital.

‘ISIS may be a challenge, but it’s a challenge that the government of Iraq should be handling themselves.’

Baghdad and Washington have ‘reached an understanding’ that U.S. forces in Syria will be supported from a presence on the Iraqi side of the border through at least September 2026. 

U.S. Central Command announced over the weekend that forces in Syria had conducted two targeted strikes in Syria that killed 37 terrorists, including leaders of ISIS and Huras al-Din, an al Qaeda affiliate. 

U.S. forces in Iraq, Syria and Jordan have come under increased attacks since the eruption of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza nearly a year ago. 

Three U.S. troops were killed by a drone attack in January at a U.S. base in Jordan supporting operations in Syria. 

American forces have responded with periodic airstrikes in response, such as in July near Baghdad, which have drawn sharp rebuke from the Iraqi public. 

Last month, seven U.S. troops were wounded in an operation to target ISIS in western Iraq. 

At the same time, troops are planning to depart Iraq, elsewhere in the Middle East the U.S. military presence is growing. U.S. officials announced Monday a ‘few thousand’ more troops would be added to the roughly 40,000 service members deployed in the region. 

It’s doubtful that this week’s debate between Vice Presidential nominees Tim Walz and JD Vance will command quite the same attention as the debate between the nominees: Vice President Harris and former President Trump. But historically, tilts between the running mates are often more pugilistic. A lot feistier. More fun to watch. And sometimes, more memorable.

It’s hard to say why the undercard can be more intriguing than the main event. But first round playoff games in hockey are often better matches than the Stanley Cup Finals. I’ve long asserted that the American League and National League Championship Series is generally more competitive baseball than what you experience during the World Series.

Perhaps it has something to do with the vice presidential candidates introducing themselves to the audience. They simply aren’t as well known.

‘Who am I? Why am I here?,’ quipped late Rear Admiral James Stockdale when independent Presidential candidate Ross Perot tapped him as his 1992 running mate.

Stockdale’s folksy line immediately drew laughter and applause from the crowd gathered that night in Atlanta.

‘I’m not a politician. Everybody knows that. So don’t expect me to use the language of the Washington insider,’ said Stockdale from his lectern wedged between future President Clinton’s running mate, then-Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., and Vice President Dan Quayle.

While Gore and Quayle quarreled, their verbal fusillades caromed back and forth in front of Stockdale. He was mostly a mute bystander. At one point, trying to get in a word edgewise, Stockdale abruptly blurted that he felt like he was in the ‘middle of a Ping-Pong’ match.

Later in the debate, moderator Hal Bruno of ABC News asked if mudslinging tactics were ‘necessary’ in the campaign. Stockdale replied he didn’t hear the question.

‘I didn’t have my hearing aid turned on. Tell me again,’ Stockdale requested of Bruno, again triggering howls from the audience.

Sometimes the VP candidates must feel each other out.

‘The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight,’ said then-Vice President Dick Cheney to former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., then John Kerry’s running mate at the 2004 VP debate.

Running mates sometimes try to appear more down-to-Earth than those at the top of the ticket.

‘Nice to meet ya,’ declared former Alaska Governor and 2008 VP nominee Sarah Palin (R) as she shook the hand of then-Senator Biden on stage in St. Louis. ‘Can I call you Joe?’

‘You can call me Joe,’ responded the future president with a smile.

Mr. Biden tried to exude an ‘aw, shucks,’ lunchpail personae in the 2012 VP debate. He deployed lay language when trading barbs with GOP VP nominee and future House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc.

‘When we look weak, our adversaries are more willing to test us. They’re more brazen in their attacks,’ said Ryan.

‘With all due respect, that’s a bunch of a malarkey,’ countered the future President.

Palin tried the same thing, using phrases like ‘doggone it’ and winking at the audience not once, but four times, to punctuate her responses.

Vice Presidential debates are often stocked with wry humor.

‘If you won’t use any football stories, I won’t tell any of my warm and humorous stories about chlorofluorocarbon abatement,’ promised then-Vice President Gore during his debate with GOP VP nominee Jack Kemp in 1996.

Gore was known for his views on global warming and environmental policy. A former congressman and Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Kemp also starred at quarterback for the San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills in the American Football League before it merged with the NFL.

A lot of people would pay to be a fly on the wall during some of the debate prep. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., has been playing Walz during the sessions with Vance. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has portrayed Vance during his rehearsals with Walz.

But you don’t even have to be a fly on the wall for these debates. Sometimes a fly just shows up – and lands on the head of former Vice President Mike Pence. Such was the case when Pence debated Vice President Harris four years ago in Salt Lake City.

But Vice Presidential debates do grow testy.

Besides the fly, many best remember the 2020 Harris/Pence debate for the Vice President repeatedly declaring ‘I’m speaking,’ beseeching Pence to wait his turn.

Viewers also remember Pence and Democratic VP nominee and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., talking all over one another during their 2016 debate.

In the first televised VP debate in Houston in 1976, GOP Vice Presidential nominee and future Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., depicted World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam were ‘Democrat wars.’ He then added that ‘the pardon of Richard Nixon is behind us. Watergate’s behind us.’

‘I think Sen. Dole has richly earned his reputation as a hatchet man tonight,’ responded future Vice President and then-Sen. Walter Mondale, D-Minn.

And future President George H.W. Bush drew the ire of female voters when he appeared to speak condescendingly to 1984 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee and Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y., – the first woman to ever appear on a major party ticket.

‘Let me help you Miss Ferraro about the difference between Iran and the embassy in Lebanon,’ said Bush.

‘Let me just say, first of all, that I almost resent, Vice President Bush, your patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy,’ shot back Ferraro.

The congresswoman noted she had served nearly six years in the House by that point.

But one zinger from a Vice Presidential debate is without question one of the best lines in the history of American politics.

During the 1988 campaign, the press corps and some in the public jeered at Quayle as Bush 41’s running mate. His youthful looks and frequent verbal faux pas made Quayle seem unprepared for the job. Quayle was 41 years old at the time. But he had already served nearly eight years in the Senate and four in the House. To compensate, Quayle often spun his youth in the same way that late President ‘Jack Kennedy’ captured the imagination of Americans.

Compared to Quayle, 1988 Vice Presidential nominee and Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Tex., presented himself as poised, stately and steady. Bentsen and his handlers were well aware of Quayle’s ‘Jack Kennedy’ comparisons. And so during the debate in Omaha, Neb., Bentsen waited for Quayle to bait his own trap.

‘I have far more experience than many others that sought the office of Vice President of this country. I have as much experience in the Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency,’ said Quayle.

Bentsen pounced.

‘I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy,’ said Bentsen.

The auditorium erupted into hales of applause and shouts.

Quayle stewed, staring daggers at his Senate colleague.

‘That was really uncalled for, Senator,’ fumed Quayle.

Bentsen’s line has echoed for decades, lampooned on everything from Saturday Night Live to 30 Rock.

Just one historic footnote. JFK and Bentsen never served together in the Senate. But they were members of the House during the same period in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Running mates have two responsibilities. They must demonstrate that they’re ready to step into the main job. And they aren’t supposed to overshadow the actual nominee. Yet with vice presidential debates, the one-liners often do just that.

The Pentagon announced on Monday that it is sending a ‘few thousand’ U.S. personnel to the Middle East to support Air Force squadrons a day after President Biden vowed not to send combat troops to the region. 

Speaking at a press gaggle with reporters on Monday, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the U.S. was sending a ‘few thousand’ more troops to the Middle East to bolster security and to defend Israel, if needed.

Biden gave a firm ‘no’ when asked Sunday if he planned to deploy additional combat troops to the Middle East.

This increased presence is to include multiple warplane squadrons, complimenting the F-15s, F-16s, A-10s and F-22s already stationed in the region. 

The planes were initially supposed to rotate in and replace the squadrons stationed there. Instead, both the current and new squadrons are to remain in place to double the available airpower because of increased tensions in the region and concern that Iran might respond to Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s leader last week in Lebanon.

Singh said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ‘increased the readiness of additional U.S. forces to deploy, elevating our preparedness to respond to various contingencies. And DOD (Department of Defense) maintains robust and integrated air-defense capabilities across the Middle East, ensuring the protection of U.S. forces operating in the region.’

The few thousand additional personnel are not combat troops but rather maintenance crews and those who can help with the air defense mission and refueling. The additional forces would raise the total number of U.S. personnel in the region to as many as 43,000.

The Pentagon’s announcement follows word that Israel has already launched limited raids across its northern border into Lebanon amid an anticipated wider ground invasion.

It also follows recent Israeli strikes into Lebanon and the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a significant escalation in the war in the Middle East, this time between Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist organization and proxy of Iran. Israel is also engaged in an ongoing war in the south against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian terrorist group sparked the conflict with its bloody incursion into southern Israel in October 2023.

Austin announced Sunday he was temporarily extending the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and its embarked air wing in the region. A U.S. official said the extension would be for about a month. 

A second U.S. carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman, sailed from Virginia last week and is en route to Europe. It will head to the Mediterranean Sea and again provide a two-carrier presence in the broader region. It’s not expected to arrive for at least another week.

Biden told reporters on Monday, ‘I’m more aware than you might know’ about reports that Israel is planning a limited ground campaign in Lebanon after nearly a year of trading attacks with Hezbollah in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, and he said he wants an immediate cease-fire.

When asked about the reports, Biden said he was ‘comfortable with them stopping’ and that ‘We should have a cease-fire now.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.