Eurasia Press & News
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas a “terrorist” and accused him of personally transferring over $1 million to militants to carry out attacks against Israel.
Olmert has vowed to shun the entire Palestinian unity government formed between Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah factions.
“Haniyeh transferred over a million dollars for a group of terrorists to carry out terrorist actions against Israeli citizens,” Olmert said in an interview with Time Magazine released on Friday. “He’s a terrorist. You have a terrorist who is prime minister of the Palestinian Authority now.”
Olmert said the funds came from outside the Palestinian territories and were transferred to one of Hamas’s armed wings for the “explicit purpose of carrying out terrorist actions.”
He offered no other details about the transfer.
An Israeli security source said Israel believes that Haniyeh was directly involved in the decision to make the transfer, which took place in recent weeks. The money was not taken from the Palestinian government, the source said.
