caption,
Few countries support Palestinian militant group; They include the most important donor, Iran, but also Qatar and Turkey
5 hours ago
The Palestinian group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has its main supporter in Iran. Tehran provides its members with weapons, training and funding. Hamas also receives funding from Qatar, Palestinian expatriates and private donors in the Persian Gulf, as well as Islamic institutions.
According to the US State Department, Iran currently provides about $100 million to Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups.
There was even speculation that the Hamas attack on Israel, which killed at least 1,400 people, including women, the elderly and children, was orchestrated by Iran, although Iran’s UN ambassador denied his country’s involvement. The US also said it had no evidence of Tehran’s direct involvement in the attack.
Nevertheless, Iran’s foreign ministry called the action an “act of selfdefense” and called on Muslim countries to support the rights of Palestinians.
Iran and Hamas also strongly reject the growing prospect of a historic peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia something that is unlikely if Israel’s military response to the attacks sparks widespread outrage in the Arab world.
Saudi Arabia has historically turbulent relations with Iran, which is also a bitter enemy of Israel. It was only in March of this year that bilateral relations between the countries normalized. An agreement between its two main rivals would make the Tehran regime even more isolated.
Qatar, on the other hand, hosts Hamas’s political office and sends resources to Gaza to the tune of $360 million per year.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been deployed from Qatar’s capital Doha since 2020, reportedly because Egypt is restricting his freedom of movement in and out of Gaza.
The Hamas leadership established a presence in Qatar after falling out with its former host Syria when Palestinian refugees took part in the 2011 uprising against President Bashar alAssad, which preceded that country’s civil war.
A report in Israel’s Times of Israel newspaper said: “Since 2018, Qatar has regularly provided Gaza’s Hamas rulers millions of dollars in cash to pay for fuel for the territory’s power plant and for the group to pay its officials and to make provision possible.” Help for tens of thousands of impoverished families”.
Some senior Hamas members also reportedly operate from the group’s offices in Turkey.
After President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power in 2002, Turkish support for Hamas increased.
Although it insists that it only supports Hamas politically, Turkey has been accused of funding Hamas’ extremist acts with funds diverted from the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency.
Unlike Iran and Qatar, Turkey recognizes Israel and maintains diplomatic relations with the country.
Historically, Palestinian expatriates and private donors in the Persian Gulf have provided much of the group’s funding.
In addition, some Islamic charities in the West have funneled money to Hamasbacked social service groups, leading to asset freezes by the U.S. Treasury Department.
After the blockade of Israel and Egypt began between 2006 and 2007, Hamas increased its revenue by taxing goods transported through an elaborate network of tunnels that bypassed the Egyptian border crossing into Gaza.
This brought basic products such as food, medicine and cheap gas to generate electricity to the area, as well as building materials, money and weapons.
After Egyptian President Abdel Fatah alSisi came to power in 2013, Cairo became hostile toward Hamas, viewing it as an extension of its main internal rival, the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas was founded at the end of the decade in 1980 as an offshoot of Hamas). the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood).
The Egyptian army has closed most tunnels crossing its territory as it wages a counterterrorism campaign against an affiliate of the selfproclaimed Islamic State on its side of the border in the Sinai Peninsula.
Egypt began allowing some commercial goods into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing in 2018.
In 2021, Hamas reportedly collected more than $12 million per month in taxes on Egyptian products imported into Gaza.