BICOM

It was announced yesterday that two Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were arrested as they attempted to smuggle significant amounts of cash to Hamas operatives in the West Bank.

Fayez Matzbah Muhammad Atar, 65, was arrested last month and was found to have smuggled tens of thousands of Euros into the West Bank using a hollow shoe. A Shin Bet statement said that Atar, who had a permit to enter Israel for commercial reasons, “was fully aware that the money was for Hamas”. However, under questioning it was found that Atar’s family are active in Hamas and so he revealed details “about the openings of tunnels that were located, for the most part, under civilian structures such as innocent residences and mosques”.

Meanwhile, 37-year-old Itallah Ali Abd Al-Karim Sirhan, who had received a permit to enter Israel for commercial reasons two weeks previously, was arrested last month at the Erez border crossing. He had agreed at the request of a Hamas policeman to smuggle cash to the West Bank. The Shin Bet said that having worked as a truck driver, removing sand from tunnel excavation sites in Gaza, Sirhan “divulged considerable information about openings of tunnel shafts including their exact locations and conditions, and the terrorist organisations responsible”.

The Shin Bet emphasised that Israel issues thousands of permits each month for Gazans to enter Israel for medical, humanitarian and other purposes. The arrests “underscored the cynical way in which Hamas exploits the willingness of the State of Israel to ease conditions for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip”.

Earlier this week, Israel transported the first aid convoy from Turkey into the Gaza Strip, in the wake of last week’s reconciliation agreement between Israel and Turkey. More than 10,000 tons of food, clothes, toys and other goods from Turkey arrived at Israel’s Ashdod port on Sunday and was transferred to Gaza on Monday. Israel permits the entry of at least 100,000 tons of goods into Gaza each week.