Scoop: Palestinian NGO "Save Gaza" "Charity Coalition" is a Hamas terrorist front

Over the past month a new slick social media campaign has popped up called #SaveGaza, on Twitter and Facebook. The initiative has already managed to produce quite a few press events with statistics about how bad things are in Gaza, all blaming Israel.

Its inaugural event was described this way in Al Bawaba (English):

The Gaza Strip has officially become a “disaster zone," the Charity Coalition, an umbrella organization for Islamic charity groups, said Thursday.

“We therefore announce the launch of the Safe Gaza Initiative with a view to meeting the basic needs of Gaza’s two million inhabitants,” coalition coordinator Ahmad al-Kurd said at a press conference in Gaza City.

Al-Kurd called on Arab and Muslim relief agencies, along with international aid organizations, to take immediate steps aimed at “rescuing Gazans from the steadily deteriorating conditions they face."

There was a demonstration organized by the same group with disabled Gazans holding up signs in Arabic and English asking where their rights are for food, water and treatment.

Today, the same group, using bogus statistics, claimed that Israel's "siege" of Gaza has claimed 1000 lives so far. They come up with this number by counting people who have died waiting for PA approval for medical treatment outside Gaza, by counting people who have died in fires started by dangerous kerosene and wood heaters and candles (blaming Israel for lack of power, which is false,) and by counting 350 people who supposedly died while looking for jobs.

Ahmad al-Kurd, in the press conference, is begging for help from the world to help the poor Gazans dying from the "siege."

"We are launching a loud cry today for the whole world to save Gaza from these catastrophic circumstances," he said. "How many victims must die?"

What is not being reported is that Ahmad al Kurd is a senior Hamas official and his "charities" are all Hamas fronts, designated as such by the US government, back in 2007.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated the Al-Salah Society, one of the largest and best-funded Hamas charitable organizations in the Palestinian territories.  Al-Salah Society's director, Ahmad Al-Kurd, was also designated today.

"Hamas has used the Al-Salah Society, as it has many other charitable fronts, to finance its terrorist agenda," said Adam Szubin, Director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).  "Today's action alerts the world to the true nature of Al-Salah and cuts it off from the U.S. financial system."

The Al-Salah Society supported Hamas-affiliated combatants during the first Intifada and recruited and indoctrinated youth to support Hamas's activities.  It also financed commercial stores, kindergartens, and the purchase of land for Hamas.  One of the most senior Gaza-based Hamas leaders and founders, Ismail Abu Shanab, openly identified the Al-Salah Society as "one of the three Islamic charities that form Hamas' welfare arm."  The Al-Salah Society has received substantial funding from Persian Gulf countries, including at least hundreds of thousands of dollars from Kuwaiti donors.

The Al-Salah Society is directed by Ahmad Al-Kurd, a recognized high-ranking Hamas leader in Gaza.  Al-Kurd's affiliation with Hamas goes back over a decade.  During the first Intifada, Al-Kurd served as a Hamas Shura Council member in Gaza.  As of late 2003, Al-Kurd was allegedly the top Hamas leader in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza.  Since mid-2005, he has served as the mayor of Deir Al-Balah, elected as a Hamas candidate.

The Al-Salah Society has employed a number of Hamas military wing members.  In late 2002, an official of the Al-Salah Society in Gaza was the principal leader of a Hamas military wing structure in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza.  The founder and former director of the Al-Salah Society's Al-Maghazi branch reportedly also operated as a member of the Hamas military wing structure in Al-Maghazi, participated in weapons deals, and served as a liaison to the rest of the Hamas structure in Al-Maghazi.  At least four other Hamas military wing members in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza were tied to the Al-Salah Society.

The Al-Salah Society was included on a list of suspected Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad-affiliated NGOs whose accounts were frozen by the Palestinian Authority as of late August 2003.  After freezing the bank accounts, PA officials confirmed that the Al-Salah Society was a front for Hamas.

The new coalition of Hamas front groups is much savvier, making sure that their videos are in English and using the disabled and children to tug at heartstrings.

In fact, much of the money raised is going to build rockets and tunnels.

The #SaveGaza hashtag is becoming more and more popular; it is unclear whether the groups using it are aware that they are promoting a terror group.

Hamas is in worse financial shape lately since it lost its funding from most Gulf countries. This "Charity Coalition" is an extremely cynical use of charity to raise funds to kill Israelis.

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