Israel has yet again accused the Islamist Hamas organization, which controls the Gaza Strip, of siphoning-off international-aid-organizations operating in the Palestinian enclave. This time a Palestinian engineer working for the United Nations Development Program, who was arrested in July, was accused by Israel’s Shin Bet-security agency of aiding the internationally recognized terror organization after confessing to being recruited in 2014 to help Hamas. The Shin Bet released a statement in which, among “various assignments” the UN engineer performed on behalf of Gaza’s dominant Islamist group was assistance in building a maritime jetty for its fighters “using UNDP resources.”
It said the Palestinian engineer also persuaded his UNDP superiors to prioritize the neighborhoods of Hamas operatives when earmarking money for reconstruction in Gaza, which was devastated following a war between the Islamist organizations in the Palestinian enclave and Israel during the summer of 2014. Israeli government spokesman David Keys noted that Hamas systematically infiltrated humanitarian organizations operating in the Gaza Strip and diverted much needed funds, earmarked for the population of Gaza, to their terror related activities. “The Israeli allegations about the money leaks from the UNDP to Hamas are false and baseless. It is part of an Israeli plan to restrict the work of international relief organizations operating in Gaza in order to tighten the Gaza blockade. We, in Hamas, warn the occupation (Israel) against the continuation of this policy and urge the international community to take the responsibility to prevent the occupation from pursuing this (policy),” said Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman.
The Islamist Hamas organization dismissed the new allegations as a bid by Israel, which along with neighboring Egypt blockades the Gaza Strip, to control the Palestinian enclave. Hamas spokesman said in response to the Israeli allegations that Israel was seeking to further restrict the organizations from operating in Hamas-held territories and urged the international community to prevent Israel from doing so. “This is the second time in a week in which Israel has uncovered and exposed the fact that Hamas operatives systematically infiltrated so-called aid organizations and humanitarian organizations and what so cynical and disgusting here is that money and support that was intended for people who really needed it, the children and the elderly, people whose homes were destroyed, instead of this money going to help people, Hamas diverted it in order to build a war machine, to kill Israeli civilians, to continue a war. It’s hard to think of a more disgusting and outrageous misuse of funds than this,” said David Keyes, Israeli government spokesman.