World Vision Gaza Chief Gets 12-Year Sentence for Aiding Hamas
An Israeli court on Tuesday sentenced the former Gaza head of a major US-based aid agency to 12 years in prison for funneling millions of dollars to the Islamist armed group Hamas.
The Beersheba District Court in southern Israel sentenced World Vision’s Mohammad El Halabi to 12 years of prison time, minus time served; he has already been jailed throughout the past six years of court proceedings.
El Halabi, 44, was convicted in June of being a member of a terrorist organization, a charge he denies. The court said he used money donated to World Vision to fund Hamas weapon deals and to procure equipment for its fighters. If found evidence of numerous deals of up to $30,000 each, with the sum total of misappropriated funds directed at the armed group that rules the Gaza Strip in the “millions.”
“It can be said with certainty that the possible damage of the defendant’s actions was significant with the potential to cause devastating and even fatal damage to the security of the State of Israel and its residents,” the court said.
World Vision itself said it found no evidence of wrongdoing or of funds missing. Spokeswoman Sharon Marshall said that the trial, verdict, and sentence were “emblematic of actions that hinder humanitarian work in Gaza and the West Bank” and that they had had a “chilling impact on World Vision and other aid or development groups working to assist Palestinians.”
“I feel disappointed at the world, which failed to free an innocent man,” El Halabi’s father, Khalil, said.