Officials at the Rafah Border Crossing with Egypt reported that European observers at the crossing, have confiscated more than $800,000 from Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman as he was entering the Gaza Strip with the money.
Julio de la Guardia, a spokesman for the European Union observation force at the Crossing, said that Sami Abu Zuhri had tried to cross into the Gaza Strip with the money but was detained and the cash confiscated.
He stated that travelers through the crossing are only allowed to carry a total of $2000 without declaring it to the authorities.
A Palestinian official at the crossing said that the money were found slashed inside a belt in the position of Abu Zuhri.
Mosheer Al Masry, a Hamas politician, said that the money Abu Zuhri carried was donations from Arab nations to the Palestinian government and was meant to be paid to political detainees in Israeli prisons.
Following the incident, dozens of fighters of the Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, deployed near the crossing; the observers threatened to leave the crossing if the fighters break into it to retrieve the money.
