Hamas Official Attempts to Smuggle $800,000 Into Gaza

JERUSALEM — A senior Hamas official was caught Friday trying to smuggle more than $800,000 in euros into the Gaza Strip, underscoring the desperate financial situation facing the Hamas-led government and deepening tensions between the Islamist group and the Palestinian executive branch.

Forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas confiscated 635,000 euros, or about $811,000, from Hamas spokesman Sami abu Zuhri at the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, officials from both sides said. Abu Zuhri was returning from a trip to Qatar, where he said he had been given the cash in donations.

Abbas ordered a criminal investigation of the incident, while Hamas bitterly denounced the seizure as unlawful.

“What was wrong in bringing in money to help our people?” Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a member of the Hamas leadership, demanded in a speech Friday at Gaza’s largest mosque.

In addition to highlighting the combative relations between the ruling Hamas and the Fatah faction it defeated in January elections, the incident demonstrated just how cash-starved the Palestinian government is. Hamas inherited a debt of more than $1 billion and has been unable to pay government salaries for two months.

Direct international aid to the Palestinian Authority dropped off dramatically after Hamas took power. The militant group has refused to bow to international demands that it recognize Israel and renounce violence.

Haniyeh said the money seized Friday was “intended to help the prisoners.” The Palestinian Authority has long paid subsidies to the families of those imprisoned for anti-Israeli activity -- a highly popular program in a society where a great majority of extended families have had at least one member jailed.

The Rafah crossing is staffed by European Union monitors and by Palestinian forces who answer to Abbas. Julio De La Guardia, a spokesman for the European observers, said Abu Zuhri carried the cash in a concealed belt strapped to his midsection, a violation of rules that any sum over $2,000 be declared to border officials.

Abu Zuhri told reporters in Gaza that the funds were private donations received during his Qatar visit.

“If helping my people is a crime, it is one I am proud to commit,” he said.

The incident also illustrated the volatility of the situation in Gaza, where thousands of rival gunmen stand ready to intervene in any dispute.

Shortly after Abu Zuhri was detained by Abbas’ men, dozens of Hamas militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades rushed to the Rafah crossing.

The standoff was defused when Abu Zuhri told the fighters that Interior Minister Said Siyam, a Hamas loyalist, had been assured by Fatah officials that the confiscation was a temporary measure. Abu Zuhri left the crossing in the company of a Hamas guard.

Siyam presided over the deployment this week of a new Palestinian police force whose creation had been vetoed by Abbas. The 3,000-strong force took to the streets of Gaza on Wednesday, and calls from Abbas’ camp that it be dismantled have been ignored.

Haniyeh said in his address at Friday prayers that there were no plans to scale back or scrap the new force, which reports directly to Siyam. “We don’t intend to back down on this,” he said.

The growing friction between Hamas and Fatah, which has often flared into bloodshed during the last two months, has alarmed the Bush administration, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling the situation dangerous.

Israel is said to be under pressure from the United States to do more to bolster Abbas, a moderate who was elected in January 2005 to succeed the late Yasser Arafat.

On Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is to hold talks with Abbas at an economic summit in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt. The meeting will be the highest-level contact between Abbas and Israel since Hamas took power in March.

*

Special correspondent Fayed abu Shammaleh in Gaza City contributed to this report.