Israel accuses World Vision's Gaza director of diverting cash to Hamas

[Little Tich]

4. World Vision: Israeli Claim That Hamas Siphoned Funds From Gazan Charity Doesn't Add Up

Source: Haaretz

Israel says World Vision's Gaza director funneled $7.2m a year to Hamas for five years in a row, but Christian organization says sum surpasses its budget for a decade.

The international charity World Vision says that the sums its Gaza Strip director is accused of funneling to Hamas are impossibly high. The director, Mohammed Halabi, is currently in Israeli detention.

According to the Christian charity, which denies the allegations, the sum Halabi is accused of siphoning off to Hamas' military wing far surpasses the organization's actual budget for the past decade.  

As first published last Thursday, the Shin Bet security agency accuses the charity of transferring about 60% of its Gaza budget to the Hamas military arm each year. Halabi, it says, has confessed to rerouting about $7.2 million a year to Hamas over the past five years.

But World Vision Germany spokeswoman Silvia Holten said in Germany on Monday that the charity's Gaza budget totaled $22.5 million in the last decade – well under the Shin Bet estimate of Halabi's alleged transfers to Hamas.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.735769