Hamas aid scandal spreads
Reports of the terror group's fraud in North Africa trigger Gazan reactions and pan-Arab coverage
Since our report last week on Hamas aid scandals in two North African countries, pan-Arab media and Palestinian observers, including Gaza residents, have voiced frustration and a warning to donors: charities directed by the armed group neither feed Gazan families nor even sustain Hamas fighters, but rather fill the pockets of Hamas elites abroad.
The discussion began in late May, when the Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to Mauritania alleged that Hamas’s extensive fundraising in the North African country amounted to a “major scam.” At the same time, in Algeria, two senior Hamas leaders were reportedly detained on embezzlement charges. Despite the noisy debate these scandals triggered, the affair remains unreported in Western media.
“Your generous donations didn’t go to people in the tents; they went to deluded gangs,” said Mohammad Mohanna, a Palestinian journalist, in a message from Gaza broadcast by Jusoor News. “They played with your feelings to fill their suitcases, and left Gaza to face catastrophe on its own. You should know that they tricked you.”
Gazan pundit Amjad Abu Koush lamented the exploitation of Arabs’ generosity. “We know that for some of these donors, it’s coming out of their daily bread,” he said of contributions from cash-strapped Mauritania — “out of their wives’ jewelry, from their kids’ allowances.” But the money does not reach its intended beneficiaries, he explained: “There’s no way to send millions of dollars to Gaza … if you want to send a transfer of even a few thousand, it faces financial and administrative review … [and] often doesn’t get there.”
“Three or four billion dollars — the widely accepted amount of Hamas fundraising for the last three years — if it all came into Gaza, could guarantee a better life than before October 7,” Abu Koush said. Supporters of Hamas fighters who think the money goes to them are also mistaken, he added: “Some people tell you outright, we didn’t send the money to you, we sent it to the Mujahedin. Buddy, even if you’re sending it to people you think are Mujahedin, it doesn’t reach them. The money is just grabbed by Hamas leaders like Osama Hamdan and Khaled Mashaal.”
Residents of Gaza also spoke out. “I’d like to sit down with a Mauritanian and ask him, who did you give this money to and where did it go?” one man told Jusoor. Another took aim at online fund drives for Gaza: “They are all thieves,” he said.
Sky News Arabia, broadcasting from Abu Dhabi, devoted a 13-minute segment to the Mauritanian scandal. Ramallah-based analyst Zaid al-Ayubi told Sky, “Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood are together carrying out the biggest fraud of all time against the Arab and Muslim peoples. Even in Europe and America they are gathering money. … I hope the media will go to Gaza and ask Gazan residents directly: do you get this aid? Do you get even a trace of this aid? All of Gaza will tell you, God no.”
The Sky segment also referenced statements by Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, at a pre-war appearance in Gaza, explaining why Hamas does not do more to help the population: “People say Hamas has money for resistance but not to help people,” he said. “Well, Hamas’s money belongs to Hamas. … We gather what we need from our friends.”
Ayubi ended his interview with a demand: “Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, stop exploiting the Palestinian cause. Stop exploiting the suffering of people in Gaza, the sighs of the mothers and children … Go steal somewhere else and leave the Palestinian cause alone.”