The Hamas-led government has received financial commitments from several countries, some of which are linked to terrorism. Read on to get the full picture.
Aid and Terror
Subsequent to the April 17 Tel Aviv suicide bombing, in which nine people were killed and dozens injured, the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority has taken additional steps to demonstrate its dedication to terror and violence.
- The Hamas-led government rejected calls by the international community to denounce the Passover terrorist attack and President Mahmoud Abbas' condemnation of the event. Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed Palestinian terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for the attack. Days before, Hamas' Damascus envoy Khaled Mashaal met with al-Qaeda leader Sheikh Abd al-Majid al-Zindani during a fundraising event in Yemen.
- Mashaal met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in February; Ahmadinejad urged him and other visiting officials to continue their "jihad" against Israel. Iran, in addition to financing Hamas, also sponsors terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Fatah-Tanzim. Since his election last year, Ahmadinejad has said Israel should be "wiped off the map," denied the existence of the Holocaust and as recently as Monday said Israel is a "fake regime" that "cannot logically continue to live."
- The day before the Tel Aviv suicide bombing, Islamic Jihad's ally and sponsor - Iran - encouraged Palestinian terrorists and Muslims worldwide to attack Israel. Iranian Parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel stated that "Resistance was the only way to fight the Zionist regime."
- Hamas not only refused to renounce the attack, but instead claimed the bombing was an act of "self-defense" and "legitimate."
- Abbas openly condemned the terrorist attack, but the growing internal feud between Abbas and Hamas led the terrorist organization to scorn Abbas for his statements. Instead the group congratulated the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad. al-Quds declared that Abbas' standpoint on the event was "strange to the Palestinian people's values and ethics" and that Abbas owed the Palestinians an apology.
- On April 25, Jordan announced that it had arrested an unspecified number of Hamas members near the Syria-Jordan border. An interrogation by the Jordanian authorities revealed that Hamas' Damascus leadership had ordered a terrorist attack on senior government officials in Jordan. On April 19, Jordanian police were led to a secret cache of weapons and rockets which were said to be the property of Hamas and furnished by Syria.
- Both Syria and Iran have enhanced diplomatic relations with Hamas after the April 17 bombing. Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa conveyed on April 20 Syria's support for the "Palestinian struggle." Three days later, Ahmadinejad called Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh, a member of Hamas, to reaffirm his country's support for the Palestinian "resistance."
Hamas and Other Palestinian Terrorist Groups
Popular Resistance Committees (PRC)
Existing strife between the Hamas-led government and Abbas led to further contention following the terror attack when Haniyeh appointed Jamal Abu Samhadana to act as chief of a new Palestinian police force.
Samhadana is wanted by Israel for his terrorist ties and his involvement in several terrorist attacks including the October 15, 2003 bombing in which three American private security contractors were killed in an attack on a U.S. Embassy convoy in Gaza.
Samhadana told the Sunday Telegraph that the Jewish people are his sole enemy and that he would assemble a paramilitary force that would be the "nucleus of the future Palestinian army." Speaking on behalf of the Palestinian terror organizations, Samhadana said, "We have only one enemy. The Jews. We have no other enemy. I will continue to carry the rifle and pull the trigger whenever required to defend my people."
Samhadana, founder of PRC, is a former member of the armed Fatah faction Tanzim. This radical terror organization operates from its base in Gaza, targeting Israeli civilians and military personnel in its vicinity. Terrorists in the PRC ranks include ex-Palestinian Preventative Security (PPS) officers, as well as affiliates of Hamas, the PFLP, Fatah-Tanzim/al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and Islamic Jihad.
The PRC's modest caches of weapons, which are used against its targets, are either smuggled through underground tunnels on the Gaza/Egypt border, locally purchased or handmade. They include small arms, explosives, mines, hand grenades, anti-tank missiles and mortars. On three different occasions in February, PRC terrorists launched a number of mortars and missiles in collaboration with the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade into Israeli territory.
The PRC rejects the authority of Abbas and his security services. Violent clashes have recently erupted between the PRC and the Palestinian Police. One such incident includes the PRC's recent murder of presidential security advisor Moussa Arafat, a cousin of Yasser Arafat.
To date, at least six Israelis have been killed and more than three dozen injured in PRC terrorist attacks, and numerous Palestinians have been injured by factional PRC civil warfare in Gaza.
al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and Fatah-Tanzim
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a separatist splinter terrorist group under Abbas' Fatah party, at first claimed responsibility for last week's suicide attack in addition to Islamic Jihad. A day before the bombing, al-Aqsa threatened to target "Zionists outside Palestine," placing international Jewish organizations and Israeli institutions on high alert.
On Sunday morning, the IDF killed two al-Aqsa terrorist suspects in Bethlehem. In response, the group threatened to "fire a barrage of Grad rockets at Tel Aviv within 48 hours." Abu Udai, an al-Aqsa commander told YNET that "the coming hours will show the seriousness of the group's intention and the start of preparations to attack Tel Aviv with a Grad missile from the West Bank."
The IDF remains on high alert not only because of the al-Aqsa threats but also because of Iran's recent unveiling of its Shahab-4 missile, a long-range ballistic within reach of Israel that can be fitted with a nuclear warhead.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades employs jihadist tactics resembling those of Hamas and Islamic Jihad by delivering suicide bombers into Israel to attack civilians. However, the group's combatant doctrine is derived from Hezbollah.
To date, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has perpetrated more terrorist attacks against Israelis than Hamas or Islamic Jihad. In January 2002, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades was the first Palestinian terrorist organization to dispatch a female suicide bomber into Israel; many more suicide bombers, women and men, have since been sent by this group. Since the start of the year, al-Aqsa and Islamic Jihad terrorists have been firing Qassam rockets and missiles into Israel. Southern communities in Israel were plagued during the first two weeks in March with multiple daily rocket attacks.
In 2002, after a wave of suicide bombings, al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades landed on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. Canada and the EU also list them as such. They are responsible for dozens of attacks, which have resulted in the deaths of more than 51 Israelis and eight foreign nationals and injuries to another 439 people. A number of the victims have been Americans.
European Commission's Breakdown of Emergency Aid and Concerns about Financing the Hamas-Led Palestinian Government
The European Commission's distribution of emergency aid to the Palestinians earlier this year included:
- €40 million ($49 million) - Payment for outstanding utility debts, including energy and electricity bills.
- €64 million ($79 million) - Heat and education assistance that was administered by the UNRWA.
- €17.5 million ($21.6 million) - Disbursement of 2005 World Bank Reform Trust Fund assistance to Abbas, with consent from the E.C. The Reform Trust Fund is an international donor program to encourage and maintain fiscal reforms. In 2005, the E.C. set aside €70 million ($86 million) for the Fund, but €35 million ($43 million) was not transferred because E.C prerequisites for the aid were not yet met. By February 27, the E.C. released half of the frozen sum because 2005 requirements had been deemed fulfilled.
Hamas has said that the U.S. is pressuring international banking institutions not to accept funds allocated to the Hamas-led government. In response this accusation, the Treasury Department has said that "if an organization or individual is facilitating direct fundraising for Hamas, they open themselves up to action by the United States."
Because the U.S. has designated Hamas a foreign terrorist organization, any American institution that conducts business with Hamas is subject to international law. JP Morgan and Citibank are now apprehensive about conducting financial transactions with money set aside for Hamas.
An anonymous Palestinian official said the Jordan-based Arab Bank turned away funds delivered from Qatar for Hamas. The Arab League has set up an account for transferring Hamas-led P.A. funds in Egypt through Misr International Bank, which French bank Societe Generale took control of last year.
After the April 17 terrorist attack, Japan withdrew its funding to the Hamas-led government. Yet a week after the suicide bombing, the Arab League stated it would deposit $50 million for Hamas' use by week's end. Half a billion dollars is expected to cover at least 40% of the 165,000 Palestinian salaries that are weeks overdue.
Thus far, according to Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat, Abbas has received $35 million from Algeria and Russia was in the process of transferring $10 million. Iran and Qatar have each pledged to donate $50 million and Saudi Arabia has promised $92 million. Palestinian FM al-Zahar said that the Arab League, through members' donations, will provide $55 million a month. He also said that the PA has "$90 million" and another $50 million - which has yet to be accounted for - already "has arrived."
A car bomb critically wounded a senior member of Islamic Jihad and killed his brother in southern Lebanon on Friday, in an attack the Palestinian group blamed on Israel. Islamic Jihad immediately dismissed the suggestion that Palestinian or Lebanese groups were behind the attack despite a complete lack of evidence and the denial of Israeli officials.
