Israel's Foreign Minister Says Hamas Documents Show Covert Ownership of Gaza Flotilla Ships

What's new

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar used a Washington, D.C. conference on "the resurgence of political terrorism," hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, to lay out what he called documentary proof that Hamas secretly financed and controlled the Global Sumud Flotilla. Saar says Israel has Hamas paperwork, not just circumstantial ties, showing covert ownership of the vessels.

"Hamas documents seized by the IDF indicate financing, operational involvement, and covert ownership of the vessels through a Spanish shell company," Saar said, according to the New York Post and confirmed by Israel National News's account of the same speech.

Saar named Zaher Birawi, founder of the International Freedom Flotilla Coalition, as an alleged Hamas agent, citing documents signed by former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and obtained by the IDF in 2021. He also displayed photos of flotilla activist Thiago Avila at the funeral of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a September 2024 Israeli airstrike after Hezbollah joined Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.

The Treasury sanctions that preceded this

Saar's speech builds on ground the U.S. Treasury Department already laid. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced sanctions on flotilla organizers and Muslim Brotherhood affiliates, calling the mission "a ludicrous attempt to undermine President Trump's successful progress toward lasting peace in the region," according to JNS and Arab News.

Those sanctioned included Saif Hashim Kamel Abukeshek, a Jordan-based member of the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad's General Secretariat; Hisham Abdallah Sulayman Abu Mahfouz, the Spain-based acting secretary-general of the PCPA; Mohammed Khatib, Samidoun's Belgium-based European coordinator; and Jaldia Abubakra Aueda, Samidoun's Madrid coordinator. Treasury also sanctioned Marwan Abu Ras, who heads the Palestinian Scholars Association, and three affiliates of HASM, an Egypt-based group Treasury calls a "violent offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood."

Treasury's statement said the PCPA "was established with funding from Hamas's International Relations Bureau, and Hamas directs its activity through the placement of Hamas officials throughout the organization." Samidoun was designated last year as a fundraising front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

The counter-argument, stated fairly

Not every sanctioned individual's alleged Hamas ties have gone unchallenged. Arab News reported that an Israeli rights group representing Abu Keshek, one of those detained after Israel intercepted a prior flotilla off Greece, denied he was a leading PCPA member, arguing he had resigned from the group more than a year earlier. This represents a specific, on-record rebuttal from people with direct legal standing to know his affiliations.

Flotilla organizers and their supporters have consistently framed these missions as humanitarian efforts to challenge Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, not terrorist fronts. Arab News noted that despite a ceasefire, Israeli operations in Gaza have continued and the territory still faces what the United Nations describes as a humanitarian crisis. If Gaza's humanitarian situation remains dire, activists pushing to break a blockade have an argument beyond terror-financing, whatever Hamas's alleged involvement in specific vessels.

Israeli authorities say no humanitarian aid was actually found aboard the intercepted ships. That claim, if accurate, undercuts the flotilla's stated mission regardless of who financed it. None of the four sources here presented an on-record rebuttal from flotilla organizers specifically disputing the no-aid claim.

What's alleged versus what's proven

Saar's claims about Hamas documents, the Spanish shell company, and Birawi's alleged agent status rest on Israeli intelligence sourcing that has not been independently verified by outside investigators in these reports. No international body has confirmed the authenticity of the 2021 Haniyeh-signed documents Saar cited. The claims remain Israeli government assertions backed by Treasury's own sanctions determinations, not court findings or independent forensic audits.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the sanctioned individuals were "enablers" Hamas uses "to sustain its position in Gaza, finance its operations, and engage in terrorist violence beyond its borders," according to Arab News. That's an administration characterization, not a criminal conviction. No sanctioned individual named in these reports has been criminally charged in a U.S. court over flotilla financing.

What happens next

Abukeshek was detained by Israeli authorities after this month's interception, then released and deported, according to JNS. Whether Spain, Belgium, or the UK, where Saar says "senior Hamas activists are running these campaigns," take any action against the sanctioned individuals residing in their jurisdictions remains unclear. None of the European governments named have publicly responded to Saar's specific shell-company allegations as of this writing.