Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has deemed a Hamas minister a
major player in the weapons smuggling industry in the Gaza Strip.

The Treasury Department has determined that Interior Minister Fathi
Hamad was playing a key role in the weapons industry in the Gaza Strip. The
department said Hamad was given responsibility for Hamas tunnels used for
the smuggling of missiles, fuel and other goods.

Palestinian sources said Hamad has become an ally of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh, scheduled to travel to Iran over the next 10 days, was expected to run for the Hamas leadership in a bid to replace Khaled Masha’al, head of the political bureau.

“Hamad has supervised the construction of smuggling tunnels for Hamas and has encouraged the building and use of homemade weapons for use against Israel,” Treasury said.

In March 2011, Treasury provided some of the first details released on Hamad, who became interior minister in May 2009. The department, based on U.S. intelligence data, asserted that Hamad was a former senior member of Hamas’s military wing as well as that of the movement’s Shura Council.

Hamad also founded and directed Hamas’s Al Aqsa television, which has
come under U.S. sanctions. Treasury said Al Aqsa was regarded as a prime
tool for recruitment, particularly of suicide bombers.

“Al Aqsa is a primary Hamas media outlet and airs programs and music
videos designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and
suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood,” Treasury said.

Al Aqsa was said to have been receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars
from Hamas headquarters in Damascus, Syria. The station was launched in 2006
on startup capital of $500,000.

Hamad was replaced as Al Aqsa director by Mahmoud Abu Daf. Treasury
identified Abu Daf as a “senior Hamas figure who served as a member of the
Hamas Shura Council and Political Bureau.”

  Al Aqsa, ally of new leader, Fathi Hamad, Hamas interior minister called key Gaza smuggler, Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Masha’al, Mahmoud Abu Daf, Shura Council, U.S. Treasury Department