AFP: Two Islamic charities in Gaza said Wednesday they had distributed more than one million dollars donated by Iran to families of “martyrs”, including those who carried out anti-Israeli suicide attacks. GAZA CITY, May 31, 2006 (AFP) – Two Islamic charities in Gaza said Wednesday they had distributed more than one million dollars donated by Iran to families of “martyrs”, including those who carried out anti-Israeli suicide attacks.
The two Gaza-based charities, Al-Ansar and the Martyrs of Palestine, doled out 1.08 million dollars to some 2,900 families in the Gaza Strip, Al-Ansar president Nafez al-Araj said in a statement.
This was the third such Iranian payment, according to the statement. Three months earlier, it said, Iran gave 1.1 million dollars to 2,020 families in the West Bank.
Israel often accuses Iran of sending cash and arms to Palestinian radical groups, in particular Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Israeli missiles have twice pounded Al-Ansar’s Gaza City headquarters.
In mid-April, Iran promised 50 million dollars to help the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority confront a financial crisis brought on by the suspension of Western aid dollars and a halt to the transfer of tax revenues collected by Israel.
