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The San Diego Union-Tribune

Hamas spokesman is caught trying to smuggle cash from Egypt to Gaza

Palestinian official among 6 wounded in Gaza City blast


May 20, 2006

Yesterday, a prominent spokesman for the ruling Hamas faction was caught trying to smuggle some $815,000 into Gaza from Egypt to circumvent the economic blockade on the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority.

Meanwhile, early today, a powerful explosion rocked the Palestinian intelligence headquarters today, killing one man and wounding six, including the intelligence chief, security officials said. Gen. Tareq Abu Rajeb and his bodyguards were nearby when the blast went off in an elevator, the officials said.

The intelligence service used its own cars to drive the wounded to a hospital. The condition of the wounded was not known.

The Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, had euros hidden under his clothes and was discovered by European officials who were working with Palestinian customs officials loyal to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

It is illegal to carry more than $2,000 into Gaza without declaring it, but the Palestinian Authority has been unable to find a bank willing to risk lawsuits in the United States for transferring money to a Hamas-run government. Abbas' office asked for an inquiry into the episode.

Tensions between Abbas' Fatah movement and Hamas have been increasing in Gaza. The two sides have deployed separate police forces in the last few days, and a series of shootings have occurred, with four more armed men wounded early yesterday morning.

Abbas, encouraged by the United States to show his authority as commander of all Palestinian forces, controls the Rafah crossing, but his order to disband the new Hamas-led militia has been ignored.

Zuhri told reporters later that the money was given by Palestinian expatriates to help the people of Gaza, because Israel has stopped transferring some $50 million a month in tax and customs receipts and most of the West has cut off direct budgetary support to the government controlled by Hamas, which has refused to recognize Israel.

“I was bringing a sum of money donated by our people abroad for the Palestinian people, but unfortunately some people working at the crossing confiscated the money,” said Zuhri, who was returning to Gaza from Qatar. “Contacts are under way with the relevant authorities to solve the problem,” he said, at a time “when the Palestinian people were under siege and are being starved.”

It was unclear what will happen to the money, which was transported under guard to the office of the Palestinian public prosecutor. But given the tensions and politics of the moment, Palestinians in Gaza expect the money to end up in the hands of the Hamas government.

Julio de la Guardia, a spokesman for a European Union contingent that monitors the crossing, said travelers crossing through Rafah must declare all sums over $2,000 and explain their origins. “He did not declare that money. He tried to smuggle it,” de la Guardia said.

About 100 Hamas gunmen came to the crossing and initially demanded that Zuhri be allowed to leave with the cash, but they left soon afterward without clashing with the presidential forces, who called in reinforcements.

Since February, the Palestinian Authority has been unable to pay salaries for its 160,000 or so employees – at least 70,000 of them belonging to armed groups or security forces of some kind – and the Gaza economy, starved of cash, is rapidly slowing.

A few thousand Palestinians rallied yesterday in the Jabaliya refugee camp, a Hamas stronghold, to show their support for the government. Carrying the green flags of Hamas, the protesters shouted, “Down with the siege!” and other slogans. In Gaza City, hundreds more gathered in the main downtown square, where Hamas leaders collected donations.

Speaking at Friday prayer services, the prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, rejected calls by Abbas to disband the new Hamas-led security force and said he was prepared to increase its size.

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