Millions Funneled To Hamas Through International Charity Group

On Thursday, August 4th, Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, revealed that it had arrested and charged a senior employee of the international aid group World Vision for terrorist activities in the Gaza Strip.

The agency cited Mohammed el-Halabi, head of the Gaza Strip region of World Vision, as the primary conspirator in an operation that siphoned millions of dollars of the charity’s funds and transferred it to the jihadist group, Hamas.

Mohammed el-Halabi, had been working with the organization for the last eleven years but was arrested in June while he was crossing into Gaza from Israel. Nearly fifty days later, Shin Bet charged el-Halabi for creating a “systematic and sophisticated mechanism” to redirect up to $50 million to Hamas over a six year span. According to Israeli security, the man developed fictitious humanitarian projects and doctored receipts in order to fund the jihadist organization.

In statements responding to the alleged crime, World Vision, indicated it was awestruck by the allegations and believed that they cannot be true. World Vision continues to outline that it is a Christian based charity group that helps millions in over 100 countries around the globe and that it stands by el-Halabi and his work.

According to the group’s website, the Jerusalem and Gaza division of the agency is committed to the implementation of aid programs in “education, disaster response, child protection, and clean water” by partnering with Palestinian Christian churches.

Shin Bet claims that these aid programs, primarily intended for farmers and fishermen, were used to feloniously funnel money to Hamas.

Israeli security alleges that it was ultimately the World Vision leader’s actions that enabled the building of illegal underground tunnels for Hamas, in addition to the purchasing of weapons and development of military bases, which were utilized to conduct terror attacks across Israel.

Prior to his work at World Vision, El-Halabi had a history of working for other aid organizations, including the United Nations Development Project.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, El-Halabi’s first position was for the United Agriculture Workers Committee (UAWC), an alleged front organization for Hamas that the Israeli Law Center provided evidence regarding its sponsorship of terrorism.

Shin Bet cites this particular point, among other indicators, as a possible reason that el-Halabi received both military and organizational training from the Gaza based terror network prior to being planted in both the UN and World Vision aid agencies.

Since his arrest on August 4th, el-Halabi revealed information regarding how Hamas agents have infiltrated other aid groups, including the United Nations, as a method of funding arms and attacks on Israel. Under questioning El-Halabi reportedly implicated his father, a senior official in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), as being a member of Hamas who aided the terror group through his leadership position.

Prior to el-Halabi’s arrest and the allegations surrounding World Vision, the United Nations faced several claims and linkages to its aid organization’s funding of terrorist activities, specifically when the UNRWA handed over rockets for Hamas in 2014.

Though there is uncertainty regarding how directly influential Hamas is within UNRWA, the relationship between the two has been previously described as mutually beneficial based on their united effort to support the people in the Gaza strip. In addition to this aspect of the UNRWA and Hamas relationship, Israeli security has previously arrested several senior officials of UNRWA, such as Nahd Rashid Ahmad Atallah, and aid workers, such as Nidal Abd al-Fattah Abdallah Nazzal, due to their connection to terrorist activities.

Ultimately, if claims regarding el-Halabi hold true, it indicates just how prevalent Hamas and other terror groups have been at infiltrating international agencies and subsequently using agency funds to fuel terrorist activity.