Hamas Rejects Funding Suspect in 3 Israelis Abduction Case

The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, categorically rejected Israeli media allegations that it has funded a Palestinian man whom the Israeli officials say is suspected of having led the group that kidnapped and murdered three Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank in June.
“The claims made by Israeli Channel 10…. are nothing but fabrications,” Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zurhi said in a statement on Wednesday.

Abu Zuhri’s remarks came after Israel’s Channel 10 TV claimed on Tuesday that Hossam Qawasmeh, who was arrested last month over suspicions that he led the group that killed the three Israeli settlers, has admitted that his group was funded by Hamas to recruit the kidnappers.

The spokesman underlined that Hamas does not at all know the suspect and has not provided any financial assistance to him.

Abu Zuhri accused the Israeli authorities of “unveiling these information at the present sensitive juncture to avoid the international backlash over the Israeli massacres in Gaza”.

The Israeli government had repeatedly accused Hamas of kidnapping and murdering the three young settlers near Al-Khalil (Hebron), while no Palestinian group claimed responsibility.

Since then, Israel has rounded up hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank, including lawmakers, former cabinet ministers and members of Hamas.

On Tuesday, Israel’s internal security agency (Shin Bet) announced the arrest of Qawasmeh and accused him of allegedly receiving financial help from Hamas to recruit Omar Abu Aisha and Marwan Qawasmeh to kidnap and kill the Jewish teen settlers.

Israel has pounded the blockaded Gaza Strip – home to 1.8 million people – since July 8 before a 72-hour ceasefire went into effect starting Tuesday.

The Israeli military aggression has taken the lives of more than 1,900 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and wounded nearly 11,000 others in Gaza since July 8.

The Tel Aviv regime has not even spared hospitals in its large-scale military offensive and continued to pound the medical centers that are in desperate need of medicine and equipment.

International bodies and human rights groups say civilians account for the majority of the victims of the ongoing Israeli war. Women and children make the bulk of the civilian casualties there.