Israel arrests UN Gaza employee “for aiding Hamas”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Israel said Tuesday, August 9 it had arrested and charged a United Nations employee for allegedly aiding Islamist movement Hamas, in the second such case involving a humanitarian worker in a week, according to AFP.

Engineer Waheed Borsh, who has worked for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) since 2003, was arrested on July 16 and indicted in a civilian court in Israel on Tuesday, a government statement said.

Hamas, which has run the Gaza Strip since 2007, denied the allegations.

The statement said 38-year-old Borsh, from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, had been recruited by "a senior member of the Hamas terrorist organisation to redirect his work for UNDP to serve Hamas' military interests".

It said he had confessed to a number of charges, including helping to build a jetty in the northern Gaza Strip, with UNDP funding, that was later used by Hamas' naval forces.

In 2015 he allegedly persuaded managers to focus on rebuilding houses in areas where Hamas members lived, after the group put pressure on him.

No figures were provided on how much aid money he is alleged to have diverted.

Hamas said in a statement that the allegations were "incorrect and baseless".

It said they were part of a wider Israeli effort "to tighten the siege of the Gaza Strip by prosecuting international relief organisations."

The Israeli government said that Borsh admitted during the investigation that "other Palestinians who work for aid organisations are also working for Hamas".