JERUSALEM, Nov 1, 2012 (AFP)
JERUSALEM, Nov 1, 2012 (AFP)
Israel’s Shin Bet has arrested a Gazan metal merchant for transferring money to the enclave’s Hamas rulers and selling iron
to Hamas militants, the internal security agency said on Thursday.
Shin Bet said it had arrested 41-year-old Maher Atia Abed Abu Gaba, who had a permit to import metal into Gaza, at the Erez border crossing on September 6 with 114,000 shekels ($29,395, 22,709 euros) in his possession.
Upon investigation, he admitted to selling “considerable amounts” of iron for years to Hamas’ military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades — iron which was “used for building tunnels, bunkers and military posts,” it said.
He also knowingly transferred “millions of dollars in cash” to Hamas, Shin Bet said in a statement.
It quoted Abu Gaba as saying that since the election of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in June, “Hamas has been more successful in transferring cash into the Gaza Strip carried by senior officials in the movement who leave for Egypt via the Rafah crossing, and return with suitcases full of cash.”
Israeli authorities confiscated 3,000 tonnes of iron Abu Gaba had imported at the port of Ashdod, and seized another 42 tonnes that were already in Israel.
He was charged on September 30 at Beersheva district court with “funding terror and providing services to an illegal organisation”.
Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza in June 2006, and tightened it a year later when Hamas seized power by ousting forces loyal to Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas.
Restrictions were eased in 2010 after a botched Israeli raid on a flotilla of activists trying to reach Gaza, in which nine Turks were killed.
Israel currently allows hundreds of truckloads of food and goods to enter Gaza every day through the Kerem Shalom crossing, but bars the entry of metals, cement and other construction materials, except for use by international bodies, fearing they will be used by Hamas to bolster their defences.
Israel says its naval blockade is necessary to prevent weapons from entering the coastal territory.
Gaza contractors rely largely on smuggling tunnels from Egypt to source the necessary materials for building projects in the Palestinian territory.
