Hamas Denies Israeli Accusations of 'Exploiting' UN in Gaza

The Hamas Islamist group denies Israeli accusations of "exploiting" the UN resources in Gaza following an arrest of UN employee on terrorism-related charges, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Tuesday.

GAZA (Sputnik) — Earlier on Tuesday, UN Development Program (UNDP) employee was formally charged with assisting Hamas. According to Israel's internal security service, Shin Bet, Wahid Abd Allah Borsh, 38, an engineer in UNDP was arrested July 16 on charges of assisting the terrorist organization. During the interrogations, he told that in 2014, he was approached by Hamas requesting him to organize his work in UNDP in the way to benefit Hamas the most.

Zuhri denied the accusations, saying they are "false and have no basis. They are part of a plan to further the siege of the Gaza Strip by means of international aid institutions," as quoted by the Jerusalem Post newspaper.

On August 4, Shin Bet said that Hamas infiltrated in the Christian relief organization World Vision providing aid to the strip and has funneled some 60 percent of aid group's budget to Hamas's military wing. While on August 1, Save the Children organization said that it would begin investigation following similar accusations made by Israel.

Hamas, an Islamist political and militant group, seeks the creation of an independent state of Palestine and wants Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories it occupied after the 1967 war.