Arab Indicted for Transferring Cash for Hamas From Turkey

A Yerushalayim Arab was indicted Sunday for transferring money from Turkey on behalf of Hamas. Seif al-Din Abed al-Nabi, a 39-year-old resident of an Arab neighborhood in the city, transferred the cash to a close friend of his, a Hamas terrorist, using his status as a Yerushalayim resident to facilitate the cash transfers.

Al-Nabi, who had previously known the terrorist, Zakaria Najib, met the latter on a business trip to Istanbul, where he was purchasing goods for a clothing store he owned. Najib asked al-Nabi to carry money with him back to Israel. The money was to be distributed to the families of terrorists and to terror groups to enable them to carry out attacks on Israel.

After succeeding in smuggling some money, al-Nabi returned to Turkey several more times to pick up additional “shipments.” Once he returned to Israel, al-Nabi would meet with Najib or his agents to transfer the money. Altogether, he managed to bring in some $25,000 before he was arrested, officials said. Officials plan to seek an extension of al-Nabi’s remand until trial.