The social affairs minister in the West Bank-based Palestinian government Thursday accused gunmen from the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip of hijacking dozens of trucks carrying aid intended for residents reeling from the three-week-long Israeli assault, reported dpa.
Mahmoud Habbash told Voice of Palestine Radio that the trucks were supposed to come under the authority of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Hamas however says the supply trucks were dispatched by Arab donors specifically for the Hamas administration in the Strip, and to no other group, to distribute to the people of Gaza.
As a result, on arrival in the Strip the trucks were directed to Hamas warehouses, officials from the Islamist movement said, adding that they have papers from the donor countries showing that the supplies were sent to the Hamas administration.
UN officials have also said that none of its supply and aid trucks have been hijacked or attacked by any armed group inside Gaza.
Habbash further accused Hamas gunmen of executing members of its rival, President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah group, during and after the Israeli assault, which began on December 27.
A spokesman for the Hamas Ministry of Interior in the Strip said Thursday that "any collaborator will be arrested" but added that the movement "will do nothing outside the law."
"Anyone who is proved to have helped the occupation (Israel) will be arrested," Ihab Ghassein said.
He said Hamas was not working against Fatah but against collaborators, and accused the secular movement of lying to "cover up its own lack of help" to Gaza residents during and after the Israeli offensive, which left over 1,400 Palestinians dead and thousands of people homeless.
On Monday Fatah warned Hamas against "targeting" its members and accused the Islamist organization of killing at least 16 Fatah members, shooting over 80 in the leg and placing many others under house arrest.