Israel arrests head of Turkish humanitarian group In Gaza for financing Hamas.
Israel on tuesday announced the arrest of the head of a Turkish humanitarian group in Gaza for giving terror financing to Hamas’ military wing in an announcement which could have broader impact on Israel-Turkey relations. It was further discovered during the investigation that, beginning in 2012, Murtaja served as the Gaza Strip coordinator of TİKA. TİKA works on behalf of the Turkish government to advance humanitarian projects in the Gaza Strip. The investigation showed that Murtaja deceived TİKA by misusing the organization’s resources and funds, which were intended for substantial humanitarian projects in the Gaza Strip, by diverting them to Hamas’s military wing. This fraud was carried out in collusion with the senior ranks of Hamas in Gaza, headed by Ismail Haniyeh. Murtaja gave financial help, loas and many funds were used or the Hamas military wing was used, inter alia, to build a facility to train Hamas navy commandos, as well as to purchase equipment and weapons. Finally Murtaja gave a lot of information but a lot of situation aren’t still clear.