The Israeli Secret Security Services, Shin Bet, and that Israeli Police, announced on Saunday, that they have arrested a Hamas activist from the West Bank city of Jenin suspected of distributing millions of dollars in donations from abroad to support military activities against Israeli targets, and families of suicide bombers.
The activist was identified as Ahmad Sultana, 43, also known as Abu Osama; He was arrested on September 25 during military operation in Jenin.
Israeli security sources claims that Abu Sultana ran an organization that claimed to distribute funds channeled through Moslem charity groups worldwide. The find was said to be in the sake of the “sick and poor families and humanitarian causes”, according to the Israeli security.
The fund that Sultana headed had an annual budget of $1 million dollars that was allocated to families of suicide bombers, detainees and activists of Hamas, the Israeli Jerusalem Post reported.
Sultana was indicted on Sunday morning at the Salem military court. He served a three-year prison term from 1993 to 1996 for his involvement with Hamas.
An Israeli security source said that Sultana has worked for the past 16 years at the Charity Committee in Jenin, and headed for the past 9 years.
According to Israeli sources, among the families that received assistance from Sultana was that of the mastermind behind the 2001Sbarro pizza restaurant bombing in Jerusalem, in which 15 people were killed and 107 were wounded, the Jpost reported.
Also, some of the funds were channeled to the families of heads of the Hamas military wing who were killed in Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, during which the army reoccupied all of the Palestinian controlled areas.
The Israeli army commander in the north of the West Bank “outlawed” this committee during the 2002 Defensive Shield operation, but the organization continued to function.
According to the Jpost, the fund funds were collected through various non-profit charity funds in Europe, Arab countries and the United States.
Also, the Israeli security believes that among the European funds believed to have transferred millions of Euros to Sultana’s organization were; Human Appeal International and Interpal in the United Kingdom; Charitable Committee for Supporting Palestine (CBSP) in France; the Charitable Association for Supporting Palestinian People (ABSPP) in Italy; and the Al-Aqsa Establishment in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and other countries.
Israeli intelligence service has always accused Hamas of using charity funds for dispatching suicide bombers. Israeli Air Force gun-ships had continuously shelled Hamas charitable organizations.
Israeli military usually demolish the homes of suicide bombers as punishment policy and their families usually become homeless.
