Hamas Officials Caught Smuggling $850,000 Stuffed In Candy Tins Into Gaza

CAIRO — Two Hamas officials returning from Egypt were caught trying to cross the Gaza border Tuesday with nearly $850,000 stuffed into candy tins, an Egyptian security official said.

Gaza's Hamas rulers are dependent on the smuggling of cash and goods to keep their government afloat because the coastal territory has been subject to an embargo since the Islamic militant group took control there in June 2007.

The two Hamas members were in Egypt with a delegation taking part in reconciliation talks with rival Palestinian factions. The Egypt-mediated talks have so far failed to produce an agreement on the formation of a unity government that would include Hamas and the more moderate Fatah movement that it ousted from Gaza.

In response to the Hamas takeover of Gaza, Israel and Egypt have kept the territory's borders sealed to all but a trickle of aid and supplies, forcing Hamas to smuggle cash across the border.

The Hamas officials stopped Tuesday were traveling in a bus carrying members of different Palestinian factions involved in the talks.

A search of the bus at the border turned up the tins of sweets stuffed with euro454,000 and $260,000 in cash instead of candy, said an Egyptian security official. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Under Egyptian law, it is illegal to leave the country with more than $10,000 in cash. Authorities also confiscated two generators, a night vision scope and mobile phones, the official said.

Hamas will be allowed to deposit the money into an account in Egypt, but likely won't be able to access the funds from Gaza. Arab banks have generally refused to transfer money to Gaza for fear of running afoul of the United States, which considers Hamas a terrorist organization.

The two men stopped Tuesday were not arrested and denied knowing what was in the candy tins, saying they were just told to carry the goods into Gaza by Hamas leaders in Egypt, the official said.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

In February, Hamas members were caught with suitcases containing $9 million and euro2 million in cash.

Comments

[Macready]

this is disgusting . . . Hamas needs the money to help the Palestinian people .. meanwhile israel continues to build illegal settlements, keeps the Palestinians locked in a ghetto .. controls everything that goes in and out . . all in violation of international law . . .and no one says anything . . Hamas was legally elected . . . they should be able to take the money in . . . I am so tired of the blantant hypocrisy directed towards the Palestinian people and Hamas . . . I blame the US and its European partners for this . ..

[chaos4700]

Also, if people haven't heard, the Obama administration officially made the $900 million dollars in aid money contingent on the Palestinian government conceding to Israel's right to exist -- which would basically spell the end of the two state solution, as things stand, if the Palestinians submitted. So much for change we could believe in. Anybody else feel like Clinton and Obama had an arrangement whereby one of them would get the White House, and the other Secretary of State, no matter what the primaries came out as?

[simmary]

For pity's sake - $850,000 comes to about 50c each per man, woman and child in that miserable Gaza Strip. They should have tried harder and got away with it.

Or was it "Planted" ? A put-up job?

[JohnBoy32]

Why is the act of Palestinians bringing goods, money or arms into their own territory referred to as "smuggling" ? This makes no sense.

If Israel imports arms, money or goods into Israel is that called "smuggling" too?

[nochaos]

I was wondering when you Israel-bashers would start getting on Egypt...wh­o also keeps Hamas out!! When will you hypocrites start calling for aid to Egypt to be cut off???

[chaos4700]

Because if we cut off aid to Israel, aid to Egypt automatically goes away. Do you even know what the Camp David Accords are, incidentally?

[LeeCalif]

Hamas is the democratically elected government of the Gaza strip.

Get over it. And stop the Israeli strangleho­ld/occupat­ion and the Israeli Apartheid Wall.

Investigate Israel's war crimes.

[SpookyOps73]

Uhh. We are not going to arrest you on smuggling charges. Just give us the money and go away.

[who38]

Good point. Who is going to keep the money, Egypt or Israel?

[nochaos]

....said the Egyptians!

[zaz33]

Islamic MILITANT GROUP ?

I believe Hamas began as a non militant organization, supported by Israel, to divide the Palistinians

Hamas later became a political party with a military wing

Since Barack Obama is Comander in Chief, does that mean every Democrat belongs to a militant group?

[chaos4700]

Nowadays? It kind of seems like it, doesn't it. The Democratic party certainly seems to have declared its own hostilities toward progressivism, considering the hand picked audience of Washington and industry insiders Obama is inviting to the White House to talk about economics, health care reform and faith-based initiatives. In the case of the latter, he's inviting all the sort of people who fell under the Bush umbrella -- anti-abortion, anti-homosexual pseudo-intellectual fanatics. Hooray for "bipartisanship," huh.

[HappyMarsden]

...and people cry and scream that Israel should allow unfettered borders into and out of Gaza. Right.

[bbrecht]

Yes-- they should allow access, what they are doing to the population of Gaza is criminal.

[sarale23]

For once, I agree with you - what Hamas is doing to the population of Gaza is absolutely criminal.

[msfsi]

I don't see how smuggling money in to Gaza has much to do with the inhuman conditions under which palestinians are forced to live by Israel and Egypt.

[amdezurik]

OMG they had WMCash? sorry just another effort to starve people by the occupiers

[amdezurik]

and why exactly should an elected governement be forced to smuggle cash?

[skialethia]

Opening the borders to humanitarian and reconstruction aid has absolutely nothing to do with money smuggling! I wasn't aware that those bills or notes were explosive?

Those people are dependent on the aid thanks to Israeli oppression and need to rebuild their homes for God's sakes!