As we reported, Israel indicted Mohammad El Halabi last week and said, among other things, “Money raised to support injured children in Gaza was diverted to the families of Hamas militants who claimed their children were wounded”.
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In a statement, the charity said: “World Vision was shocked to learn of these charges against Mohammad”.
Michael Oren, then Israeli Ambassador to the USA set the record straight in a blistering response a few days later, calling Stearns’ allegations “completely without foundation and are libelous to the State of Israel”. Boresh was arrested in mid-July, and indicted for fraud and aiding a terror group in a Be’er Sheva court Tuesday. Building supplies were transferred to Hamas for construction of tunnels and military installations, the AP reported.
Nahshon further noted that Israel stressed that it expects the United Nations to publish an immediate condemnation of Hamas’ abuse of worldwide aid to Gaza.
“These are not independent incidents, but a worrying trend of Hamas terrorists systematically taking advantage of United Nations groups”, Danon said in a statement. He called for a fair and transparent trial.
Mohammed el-Halabi established a “systematic and sophisticated mechanism” to divert up to $50 million over the years to the militant group, which rules Gaza, creating fictitious humanitarian projects and doctoring inflated receipts in order to get the funds to Hamas, said the Shin Bet… She said she discovered this while her group researched a lawsuit against the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which in the past was involved in attacking Israelis.
The office of World Vision in East Jerusalem.
There’s another problem. When World Vision has made statements about the conflicts between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and their impact on children, it typically treats Israel with a much rougher hand than it does Hamas.
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Since Halabi’s arrest, World Vision has suspended operations in Gaza pending a full review. If confirmed, Hamas’s embezzlement of aid funds would be “reprehensible”, according to the statement.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon circulated a cartoon showing a child and an elderly panhandler in Gaza.
World Vision had appointed a Palestinian lawyer and his son had denied the charges, he said Monday. Israel hadn’t yet provided any evidence of its claims, it added.
“Before that time he managed only portions of the Gaza budget”.
The UNDP is the “latest victim of Hamas”, he said.
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Mr. Halabi confessed to these acts during an investigation, the officials said. According to its website, the organization runs programs aimed at improving conditions for the residents of the Gaza Strip in four sectors: governance, productive livelihoods, environment, and infrastructure.
