After the start of its offensive in Gaza at the end of October, the IDF discovered two letters exchanged by Hamas leaders, detailing the money received - more than 200 million pounds sterling, or more than 230 million euros - by the Islamist movement Palestinian from Tehran since 2014, reveals
The Times
. The letters, written by the deputy commander of the armed wing of Hamas, Marwan Issa, since killed in an Israeli airstrike last March, were signed under the name Abu al-Baraa, specifies the British daily. They are both addressed to Abu Ibrahim, known as Yahya Sinwar, the number one leader of Hamas, actively sought by Israeli forces.
The IDF considers this correspondence as proof of Iran's support for the terrorist organization behind the bloody attack in southern Israel on October 7. Iran was the first country to show its support for Hamas, the day after the attack. “
Iran supports the self-defense of the Palestinian nation
,” President Ebrahim Raïssi declared at the time.
Content of letters
A first typewritten letter, written in 2020, shows
“a table of monthly payments”
from Iran from July 2014, when an armed conflict was already breaking out between Hamas and Israel. 154 million dollars were transferred to the Palestinian Islamist movement during these six years. Allowances taken from this sum were given directly to Sinwar in cash, as well as to a certain Abu al-Abed, who in reality would be one of the leaders of Hamas named Ismail Haniyeh.
“In the name of Allah the Merciful. To my dear brother Abu Ibrahim, may Allah protect him
,” begins the second letter, this time handwritten, dated November 2021. Marwan Issa details payments from Iran of at least 68 million additional dollars and refers to other anticipated amounts. As indicated in the letter, part of the money was allocated to
the "apparatus" -
the fighting wing of Hamas -, another to the political wing, as well as a final $2 million to Sinwar .
The money, coming from Iran, was first transferred in cash to Hamas contacts in Lebanon. Once in Beirut, the funds were allegedly transferred to Gaza using a network of money changers using various credit systems to route the money to Hamas leaders.