(Daily Mail) Letters exchanged by Hamas leaders have revealed how Iran appears to have awarded at least £200 million to the Palestinian militant group since 2014.
One document, seemingly written in 2020 by a top official in Hamas’ armed wing, Marwan Issa (Abu Baraa), and addressed to the group’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar (Abu Ibrahim), showed a table of payments totalling $154 million from the Islamic Republic to Hamas coffers.
A second handwritten letter in November 2021 goes on to show the receipt of at least another $68 million and references to further expected payments.
The Israeli military, which allegedly uncovered the letters amid their operations in Gaza, told The Times they believe the documents prove Iran’s systematic funding of the Hamas group prior to the October 7 attacks which prompted the outbreak of war.
They claim the money was transferred into Hamas accounts in Gaza via a complex system that sees members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds force (IRGC-QF) deliver huge sums of cash to Hamas contacts in Lebanon.
Once in Beirut, the money is squirrelled across the border by a network of money-changers using shell companies, crypto-currency, shipping transactions and various credit schemes to funnel the money to Hamas chiefs.