Official Hamas documents recovered by Israeli forces reveal the terror group’s direct involvement in the Gaza-bound “freedom flotilla” carrying climate change activist Greta Thunberg, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Tuesday.
The documents, discovered in the Gaza Strip, show a “direct link between the flotilla leaders and the Hamas terrorist organization,” according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Members of Hamas’s foreign arm, the Palestinian Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), have been involved in organizing the mission.
The Global Sumud Flotilla — a fleet of several dozen boats carrying a few hundred passengers, including Thunberg — set sail to deliver aid and protest Israel’s blockade of Gaza. The vessels are expected to arrive within days, although the Israeli Navy plans to intercept them.
Founded in 2018, the PCPA functions as Hamas’s representative body abroad, operating as a de facto Hamas embassy, according to the ministry. The organization is responsible for “mobilizing actions against Israel, including violent demonstrations, marches, and provocation flotillas,” the press release stated.
One of the recovered documents is a 2021 letter signed by Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s Political Bureau, addressed to the PCPA chairman. The letter explicitly calls for unity and publicly endorses the PCPA, which Israel designated as a terrorist organization that same year, the translated document shows.
The second document, discovered at a Hamas outpost in Gaza, is a list of PCPA operatives that includes Zaher Birawi, head of the group’s Hamas sector in the U.K. and a longtime flotilla organizer and Saif Abu Kashk, an operative in Spain, according to the ministry. Kashk also serves as CEO of Cyber Neptune, a Spanish front company that the Israeli Foreign Ministry says owns dozens of ships in the Global Sumud Flotilla.
The Israeli foreign ministry said that Kashk’s involvement proves the ships are “secretly owned by Hamas.”
The ministry also published photos of Birawi with flotilla activists, including Thunberg, and other images showing him alongside senior Hamas officials.
The Global Sumud Flotilla did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Neither Birawi nor Kashk could be reached for comment.
Thunberg’s earlier attempt to reach Gaza in June ended with the Israel Defense Forces intercepting her boat, detaining her in Israel and deporting her.
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