A screenshot from N12 footage taken inside a Hamas tunnel in Gaza reveals what appears to be a scooter carrying the logo of a French NGO, designated as a Hamas-related terror group years ago by both Israel and the US.
Humani’Terre was recognized by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as an alias of a group named the Committee of Charity and Solidarity with Palestine (CBSP), a French organization designated as a terror group acting and fundraising on behalf of Hamas – by Israel in 1997 and by the US in 2003.
According to their official filings, the organization gained approximately 30,000 euros’ worth of public funding in 2022. A scooter carrying their logo inside a Hamas-run tunnel may suggest that Hamas officials were using this equipment, allegedly aimed at the needy of Gaza, to facilitate movement inside the tunnels that were built as command centers and weapon warehouses.
“It is quite disturbing that France, which called for an international coalition against Hamas following the October 7 massacre, continues to allow Humani’Terre to operate – all the more so when its links to the terror group have been public knowledge for decades,” said Vincent Chebat, senior researcher at the NGO Monitor watchdog, who was the first to identify the logo and go public about it.
“The French government must also act against other terror-linked NGOs, notably Samidoun and Collectif Palestine Vaincra (CPV), which are vectors of radicalization in Europe,” Chebat added, referring to two organizations sympathizing with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is a terror-designated organization in the EU, the US, and Israel, among others. Israel designated Samidoun as a terror group affiliated with the PFLP in 2021. Macron had ordered that CPV be dissolved, but the French courts later rejected that decision.
As for CBSP, it “is run under the umbrella of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated entities in Europe. It has faced scrutiny in Israel and the US for its financial activities and recognized as being involved in funneling funds to Hamas for years. They operate through seemingly legitimate channels, including charitable events, where collected funds are nevertheless directed purportedly to Hamas,” commented Dr. Dina Lisnyansky, political expert on Middle East Affairs at Shalem College, NGO Forum Dvorah, and Reichman University.
Tackling organizations engaging in extreme activities
“There’s been a noticeable shift in how such organizations are addressed in France,” she added when questioned regarding the legal aspects taken by Paris. “The government is moving towards legislative action aimed at curbing their operations. President Macron has been vocal about tackling organizations that, while appearing moderate, engage in extreme activities. This stance is not only aimed at protecting the general populace but also Muslims in France who do not align with these organizations’ extremist ideologies.“These organizations are being inspected under the premise of fear from the creation of a ‘state within a state,’ prompting French authorities to consider parliamentary legislation to restrict their activities. The exact nature of the proposed legislation remains unclear, but it did signify a central part of Macron’s electoral promises to address the issue,” Lisnyansky concluded.This revelation is but one of a long series of exposés from the past year regarding Hamas’s activities in Europe.These include the indication by German security authorities regarding Majed Al-Zeer as a Hamas official in Germany following years of being designated by Israel as a Hamas operator in Europe; the accusation pointed by the Belgian justice minister to an organization named EUPAC as a proxy group fundraising for Hamas in the kingdom; and the arrest of Amin Abou Rashed, another Israel-recognized Hamas affiliate, who was detained last June in the Netherlands on a similar background.The tunnel in which these pieces of equipment were found is the same tunnel exposed last week, which was found underneath UNRWA headquarters and a nearby school. Running 18 meters under UNRWA headquarters and about 700 meters in length, the tunnel features wide electric and technological infrastructure, including a server room. This discovery provides further proof that Hamas has been using UNRWA infrastructure to draw electricity for its terror-related activities under the guise of humanitarian aid.“I didn’t know and I didn’t hear. Had they reported anything, we would’ve checked. Our workers go home every day at 14:00,” UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hamza told Israeli news channel Kan.