The Israeli censorship allowed on Tuesday revealing the details of the arrest of a Palestinian citizen from Gaza on charges of transferring Turkish funds to Hamas’s armed wing al-Qassam Brigades while Hamas declared that these charges are fabricated.
According to SAFA news agency quoting the Hebrew TV channel Two Israel accused the director of the Gaza branch of TIKA a Turkish relief organization of working for and transferring funds to Hamas and its armed wing.
Israel charged Mohammed Murtaja with being recruited by Hamas in 2008 and being a member of al-Qassam Brigades since 2009. Murtaja was also charged with manufacturing weapons and explosive devices digging tunnels and hiding grenades and other weapons in his house.
The Israel Security Agency (ISA) claimed that Murtaja exploited his work with the Turkish organization to enter Israel and acquire information that would develop the accuracy of the Hamas rockets fired at “Israeli cities”.
The ISA allegations said that in 2012 Murtaja started to divert part of the Turkish funds estimated at tens of millions of shekels to Hamas’s military activities.
Murtaja who is married and has 4 children was arrested while departing Gaza through Israel to attend the annual training meeting organized by TIKA in Ankara for its coordinators and local staff.
For its part Hamas Movement affirmed that the charges leveled against the humanitarian organization TIKA and its coordinator in Gaza are fabricated.
Hamas’s spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement that targeting the international organizations that are active in the Gaza Strip and arresting their coordinators and fabricating charges against them fell in line with a frenzied Israeli campaign aimed at tightening the blockade imposed on the Gazan people.
Barhoum added that this is an attempt to terrorize these international and humanitarian organizations away from providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.
