Sacks of flour for Gaza
Sacks of flour for GazaIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Hamas is using its stranglehold on Gaza to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching supporters of the rival Fatah party, according to the German newspaper Der Spiegel.

Previous reports have revealed that Hamas confiscates some of the aid and equipment that reaches Gaza for its own terrorist organization and army. It has also confiscated tens of thousands of dollars from Gaza banks and sold them on the black market.

The terrorist organization routinely uses the tunnel smuggling system to extort high taxes and control the target destination of supplies.



Der Spiegel
provided evidence that Hamas also keeps aid from reaching Gazan members of Fatah, which is based in Judea and Samaria under Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. His powers were stripped in the bloody war three years between the parties’ militias.

Fatah Supporter: We Get Nothing

The newspaper quoted Gaza resident and Fatah supporter Zaed Khadar as saying, “People who are not in with Hamas don't see any of the relief goods or the gifts of money. Hamas supporters get pre-fabricated housing, furnishings and paid work. We get nothing.”

His neighbor, Hamas supporter Aderauf al-Batsch, received a brand new house as a gift from de facto Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Al Batsch claimed, "The construction ministry held a lottery to win a new home. And I just happened to be the winner. Sometimes in life you get lucky.”

Even Hamas supporters were not able to receive aid last week, after Hamas temporarily refused to allow Israeli authorities to transfer overland the goods and commodities that were on the flotilla, whose organizers tried to sail to Gaza to break the Israeli sea embargo.

"We will not take any bloodstained aid. If we accept the delivery of aid then we are legitimizing Israel's violent actions," Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told Der Spiegel.

However, Hamas left itself off the hook by saying it would allow the aid to enter Gaza if Turkey requested the movement of goods for Gaza residents.