Embezzlement scandal raises pan-Arab questions about Hamas fundraising
A Hamas leader's reported arrest for theft complicates the group's play for Arab aid
Arab media reported this week that Algeria’s government has arrested Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri, together with Yusuf Hamdan – son of long-time Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan – on charges of embezzling Arab donations to Gaza. Though the alleged arrest has not been confirmed, it was joined by similar accusations by a Palestinian Authority official in neighboring Mauritania. These scandals have sparked a rare public debate with potential repercussions for Hamas’s weakened financial base.
Abu Zuhri is an iconic, long-serving Hamas politburo member whose provocative public comments have drawn charges of indifference to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. Defending Hamas’ decision to launch the October 7 attack despite its toll in life and property, Abu Zuhri said, “The houses will be rebuilt … As for the martyrs, the wombs of our women will replace them many times over.”
Abu Zuhri has repeatedly visited Algeria on fundraising missions; though 1,500 miles from Gaza, it is one of the few countries where Hamas can still wage a public fund drive.
Yusuf Hamdan, the other alleged suspect in the scandal, is Hamas’s official representative in Algeria, and heavily involved in the group’s fundraising. A second generation Hamas activist, Hamdan was born in Kuwait and educated in Tunisia before settling in Algeria. He wrote a masters thesis on Palestinian “resistance cinema,” and often adopts a theatrical tone when speaking about Gaza, as if he were on the scene there himself. “We will fight the occupation with our bare hands if we have to,” he told an Algerian audience during the war. “We will die of hunger before we’ll surrender.”
In neighboring Mauritania — one of the Arab world’s poorest states — Hamas representatives faced similar allegations of stealing donor funds, leveled by the Palestinian ambassador himself. Bashir Abu Hattab, the Palestinian Authority’s envoy to the country, called Hamas-led fundraising efforts a sham. “These donations have not reached the Palestinian people,” he told a Mauritanian TV journalist. “This is a major scam that I refuse to let innocent, pure-hearted donors fall for.”
In response, Hamas Mauritania representative Mohammad Subhi Abu Saqr took to local television to rebut the charges. Wearing colorful North African-style robes and headgear, he lamented, “The social media channels are talking about this non-stop.” He cited his extensive international fundraising experience in assuring that Mauritanian donors are unusually savvy and inquisitive, and cannot easily be fooled.
This noisy dispute has sparked an intense public debate in Mauritania. Some locals are calling for an investigation into Hamas corruption, while others claim Hamas fundraisers have shown video proof of aid being delivered to Gazans. One local observer told al-Jazeera that giving to Hamas is driven partly by a spirit of competition among Bedouin clans, each vying to out-due its rivals in gathering donations.
Hattab, the Palestinian ambassador, insisted that the idea that donations from Mauritania through Hamas actually help people in Gaza is implausible: “I assure you that they haven’t reached the Palestinian people,” he said. “Gaza is suffering from a cash crisis …. The money is all on digital banking applications headquartered in Ramallah.”
North African philanthropy is not itself a major source of Hamas financing. But the scandal poses a problem for the armed group to the extent word of it spreads in the oil-rich Gulf. Funding for Hamas, whether from Qatar-linked entities or wealthy individuals, particularly in Kuwait, already faced unprecedented pressure before news of the scandal broke. The recent Iran war has weakened Gulf economies — notably Hamas benefactor Qatar, which is estimated to have lost $20 billion in natural gas revenues so far this year, with longer-term losses expected. The war has also focused Gulf capitals on sanctioning Iran-related transnational militant groups, given their reported involvement in attacks on multiple Gulf countries over the course of the war.
Kuwaiti terrorism expert and retired navy officer Suwaid al-Abkal says the North African scandal has sparked an overdue conversation in Arab lands about terror financing. “We told you to check up on the money,” he wrote on X. “We told you that Gaza and those who make money off Gaza aren’t the same thing. Now … who will hold accountable those who gathered [funds] with blood? Who will open the files of those who shielded themselves with slogans?”
As we previously observed, to win popular legitimacy in Gaza, Hamas needs to achieve what Hezbollah did after the 2006 Lebanon war: a massive commitment of assistance from foreign patrons to rebuild its destroyed territory. Equivalent monies do not appear to be forthcoming, however. Hamas therefore employs ever-increasing levels of brutality against its population to extract heavy, unpopular taxes and fees. The more it does so, in turn, the more Hamas isolates itself from the population. Charges of Hamas theft in Arab lands stand to accelerate this vicious cycle.