Gaza steel merchant arrested for aiding Hamas

Security forces nab man for providing terror organization with funding and materials for underground bunkers

By Stuart Winer

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1 November 2012, 3:20 pm Edit

Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

View of the Ashdod port (photo credit: Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

The Shin Bet security services together with police arrested a Gaza steel merchant for aiding and abetting the Hamas terror organization.

The 41-year-old Gaza resident, who had a permit to enter Israel, was apprehended at the Erez checkpoint in September. Security officials also confiscated a shipment of steel that arrived in Ashdod.

According to details of the case, which were only permitted for publication on Thursday morning, Mahar Atirya Abu-Agaba was arrested several weeks ago on charges of selling Hamas $420,000 worth of steel used to build underground bunkers.

The charges claim that Abu-Agaba shipped steel to Israel’s Ashdod port and from there transported it to the Gaza Strip. In addition, Abu-Agaba is charged with using Hamas money changers to send $3.5 million in cash to his brother in Egypt.